Which of the below given combination is true for a therapeutic relationship?
(A) Sympathy is same as empathy and intellectual understanding of another person's situation.
(B) The contractual nature is between three individuals.
(C) It is warm and non-judgemental in nature.
(D) Empathy enriches the therapeutic relationship and transforms it into a healing relationship.
(E) It is a trusting and a confiding relationship.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → (C), (D) and (E) Only
(A) Sympathy is same as empathy and intellectual understanding of another person's situation. Incorrect. The opposite is true: empathy is different from sympathy and intellectual understanding. In sympathy one feels compassion and pity but cannot feel like the other person; intellectual understanding is cold; in empathy one feels like the other person.
(B) The contractual nature is between three individuals. Incorrect. The contractual nature of the relationship is a partnership of two willing individuals, the client and the therapist, aimed at helping the client overcome her/his problems.
(C) It is warm and non-judgemental in nature. Correct. The therapist is accepting, empathic, genuine and warm, and conveys that s/he is not judging the client; this is unconditional positive regard.
(D) Empathy enriches the therapeutic relationship and transforms it into a healing relationship. Correct. Understanding things from the client’s perspective, as if in the client’s shoes, turns the relationship into a healing one.
(E) It is a trusting and a confiding relationship. Correct. The high level of trust enables the client to unburden herself/himself and confide psychological and personal problems to the therapist.
NCERT (2025-26): “Therapeutic Relationship … There are two major components of a therapeutic alliance. The first component is the contractual nature of the relationship in which two willing individuals, the client and the therapist, enter into a partnership which aims at helping the client overcome her/his problems. The second component of therapeutic alliance is the limited duration of the therapy. This alliance lasts until the client becomes able to deal with her/his problems and take control of her/his life. This relationship has several unique properties. It is a trusting and confiding relationship. The high level of trust enables the client to unburden herself/himself to the therapist and confide her/his psychological and personal problems to the latter. The therapist encourages this by being accepting, empathic, genuine and warm to the client. The therapist conveys by her/his words and behaviours that s/he is not judging the client and will continue to show the same positive feelings towards the client even if the client is rude or confides all the ‘wrong’ things that s/he may have done or thought about. This is the unconditional positive regard which the therapist has for the client. The therapist has empathy for the client. Empathy is different from sympathy and intellectual understanding of another person’s situation. In sympathy, one has compassion and pity towards the suffering of another but is not able to feel like the other person. Intellectual understanding is cold in the sense that the person is unable to feel like the other person and does not feel sympathy either. On the other hand, empathy is present when one is able to understand the plight of another person, and feel like the other person. It means understanding things from the other person’s perspective, i.e. putting oneself in the other person’s shoes. Empathy enriches the therapeutic relationship and transforms it into a healing relationship.…” |