PsychologyTherapeutic Approaches

Which of the following enriches the therapeutic relationship and tran…

Which of the following enriches the therapeutic relationship and transforms it into a healing relationship?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → Empathy

Option	Reason
Option (1): Unconditional positive regard. Incorrect.	Unconditional positive regard is the therapist's acceptance of the client. The therapist keeps showing the same positive feelings, whatever the client says or confides.
Option (2): Empathy. Correct.	Empathy is feeling like the client and seeing the problem from the client's perspective. This shared feeling turns the alliance into healing.
Option (3): Trust. Incorrect.	Trust makes the alliance a trusting and confiding relationship. A high level of trust lets the client unburden herself or himself and confide personal problems.
Option (4): Confidentiality. Incorrect.	Confidentiality is the therapist's duty to keep the client's disclosed experiences, feelings and thoughts strictly private. The therapist must also never exploit the client's trust.

NCERT (2026-27): “Therapeutic Relationship …
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. …”

Which of the following enriches the therapeutic relationship and transforms it into a healing relationship?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → Empathy

Option	Reason
Option (1): Unconditional positive regard. Incorrect.	Unconditional positive regard is the therapist's acceptance of the client. The therapist keeps showing the same positive feelings, whatever the client says or confides.
Option (2): Empathy. Correct.	Empathy is feeling like the client and seeing the problem from the client's perspective. This shared feeling turns the alliance into healing.
Option (3): Trust. Incorrect.	Trust makes the alliance a trusting and confiding relationship. A high level of trust lets the client unburden herself or himself and confide personal problems.
Option (4): Confidentiality. Incorrect.	Confidentiality is the therapist's duty to keep the client's disclosed experiences, feelings and thoughts strictly private. The therapist must also never exploit the client's trust.