State-Trait Anxiety Level and Counselor Empathic Behaviors in the Interview

Abstract

The concepts of anxiety and empathy have both long been accepted as playing vital roles in the counseling process. Since Rogers (1957) first identified the construct as one of the necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic personality change, empathy has been considered one of the most important variables in counseling and therapy. Considerable research has focused on the role of empathy in counseling and on its relationship to successful counseling and therapy outcomes with often conflicting and confusing results (Gladstein, 1970, 1977). Gladstein (1977, 1983) proposed that the term empathy refers to a complex phenomenon, and that research that focuses on specific cognitive and affective aspects of empathy may lead to new insight into these contradictory findings.