May 2021 Clinical Supervision Topic: Unconditional Positive Regard

When it comes to unconditional positive regard, it’s about conveying an attitude and creating a climate for our clients. And, because it’s a common factor, we know it is a crucial element in having positive therapeutic outcomes, regardless of your chosen evidence-based practice.

Unconditional positive regard does not mean:

• We like or condone everything our client says

• We are always feeling positively about our client

• We always feel happy in session

• We validate everything our client says

• We always accept our client

Unconditional positive regard does mean:

• We aim to not expect our client to conform to our wishes or wants

• We aim to not judge our clients

• We aim to convey warmth and openness in our sessions

• We experience many moments of unconditional positive regard with clients, interspersed with conditional positive regard, and we strive for the former a reasonable amount of time.

Please check out this video in preparation for this month’s sessions. Note that unconditional positive regard has lots of overlap with congruence, and we’ll be going over congruence in a different month, but understanding overlap is valuable.

To reflect on:

How can I communicate unconditional positive regard while addressing a client’s expression of racism, misogyny, patriarchy, etc.?

How do I hold unconditional positive regard when a client is blaming me for their problems?

What about with an abusive parent, when the child is my client?

Are there other tricky situations you can think of?