IJSP Number 2, 2020

68 Researches on empathy show that, between the therapist’s empathy and high levels of cognitive functioning and flexibility, as well as levels of training, experience and personal therapy, there is a positive correlation [2]. The therapeutic relationship is a good predictor of success in psychotherapy, and empathy is one of the essential components that contribute to this relationship, which refers to the therapist’s empathic attitude towards the client. Empathy does not have a specific visible effect, but has „a role in the therapist’s way of being a non-directional company on the client’s journey” [2]. According to Carl Rogers there are three therapeutic particularities responsible for the therapeutic change, namely: unconditional positive attitude, empathy and authenticity. In other words, it is necessary for the therapist to have a positive unconditional attitude towards the client, to accept the client unconditionally and to teach the client to accept oneself unconditionally, to be empathetic and authentic in the interaction with the client. All this contributes to creating a safe therapeutic climate in which clients heal themselves through their own self- actualization tendencies [2]. 1.2. EMPATHY IN VARIOUS THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES The authors Bohart and Greenberg [2] underline the concept of empathy through several therapeutic approaches: • In client-centred therapy – empathy refers to the perception of the client’s internal reference framework, understanding the current experience and meanings, without judging, imaginatively accessing the client’s experience and observing how to interact with the therapist as well as aspects that are difficult to be communicated by the client; • In psychoanalysis – empathy is found in understanding the unconscious structure of the experience, through a grant between the analyst’s and the patient’s unconscious; the clues discovered after emphatic listening regarding the unconscious dynamics are not shared with the analyzed subject and a relationship it is not desired to establish, within which a corrective emotional experience can take place; • In developmental and social psychology – empathy is studied along with pro social behavior, such as altruism and morality, and the antisocial one, such as aggression, being considered as an effective response to the suffering of a person, without talking about the difference between empathy and compassion; • In cognitive-behavioral therapy – empathy is a variable that helps establish a therapeutic relationship to make the client more responsive to the intervention, but it is considered a way to accompany the client.