Relationship of Counselor and Client Sex and Sex Role to Counselor Empathy and Client Self-Disclosure

Abstract

One of the significant controversies in current counseling theory and practice concerns the relationship of empathy to counseling outcome. Both theory (Rogers, 1975) and empirical research (Carkhuff, 1969a, b; Truax, 1966; Truax & Carkhuff, 1967) agree on the crucial role of empathy for therapeutic effectiveness. Advocates of this position view empathy as one of “the necessary and sufficient conditions for therapeutic personality change” (Rogers, 1957). Recent empirical and conceptual reviews of empathy and counseling outcome (Gladstein, 1970, 1977), however, have challenged this conclusion. According to Gladstein (1977), the empirical evidence regarding the positive relationship between empathy and counseling treatment remains equivocal.