CLINICAL EDITOR’S COMMENTS: B
Play therapist self-awareness is foundational to the provision of unconditional positive regard and congruence.
efore a play therapist can meet a child with acceptance and empathy, they must provide these conditions to themselves. Rogers (1957) described how therapist congruence connects to the level of unconditional positive regard (UPR) and empathy a therapist offers to their clients. He posited that the more genuine a therapist was in the relationship, the greater the scope of UPR and empathy they could impart. Landreth (2023) and Ray (2011) applied these principles to Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT), suggesting that understanding congruence and UPR deepens therapeutic practice as play therapists. Attending to therapist conditions of congruence and UPR directly affects the therapeutic relationship. Although the conditions originated within person-centered theory, and therefore CCPT, therapists from other theoretical orientations acknowledge the importance of the conditions and actively utilize them in practice.
Understanding the interplay between congruence, UPR, and empathy provides valuable insight into the foundations of effective therapy. To fully grasp their application in play therapy, it is essential to explore how Rogers’ (1957) six conditions for the therapeutic relationship build upon one another in a deliberate sequence. Rogers’ (1957) conditions are set in the order of their establishment in therapy. therapist and client, 2) the client in a state of incongruence, 3) therapist congruence, 4) therapist UPR toward the client, 5) therapist empathy towards the client, and 6) the client’s perception of receiving UPR and empathy. From this ordering, the therapist’s congruence precedes UPR and empathy. Jayne and Ray (2015) researched the therapist-provided conditions of congruence, UPR, and empathy within CCPT and further supported the interplay of the conditions within the therapeutic process with children.
Congruence thoughts, emotions, beliefs, values, and physical sensations during sessions (Landreth, 2023; Rogers, 1957). This attunement requires the therapist to have both a high level of self-awareness and quickness in the ability to acknowledge and address those experiences moment- to-moment. One example of how therapist congruence appears in a play session is when a child acts to pour sand outside of the sandbox. At the moment, the play therapist perceives the child’s action and reaction and decide to set a limit or allow the action to continue. A therapist with a high level of congruence who experienced discomfort
with the mess created would likely set a limit on the behavior but not due to their pain. Instead, they are aware of their internal reaction, acknowledge their discomfort, and address that the limit is needed for the safety of the room and the continuation of a genuine relationship with the child. A play therapist with a lower level of congruence might and set a limit with the child to decrease their pain in the moment. Even though the limit setting may be the same on the surface, the purpose of the limit is less to meet the child’s or relationship’s needs and more on the therapist’s needs.
Unconditional Positive Regard While congruence focuses on the therapist’s self-attunement, UPR centers on accepting the child. UPR is the ability to accept another without wishing they were different in some way (Landreth, 2023; to hold an openness towards the client and belief that the client is worthy of being prized. Returning to the example of a child pouring sand outside the sandbox, a play therapist communicates UPR to the child through how they state the limit, both verbally and through nonverbal behavior. A limit that focuses on the behavior rather than the personality of the child communicates that the therapist may not agree with the behavior the child has engaged in but accepts the child’s personhood which includes desires to be messy. This kind of limit-setting could follow Landreth’s (2023) ACT model, in which the therapist acknowledges the child’s emotions and desires, communicates the limit, and helps identify another way to meet the child’s needs through an accepted behavior. Conversely, a therapist experiencing conditional regard for the client may set a limit focusing more on the child as the problem, such as, “I’m disappointed. You therapist may also communicate conditional regard through a disapproving tone of voice or body language such as shaking their head or crossing their arms.
www.a4pt.org | March 2025 | PLAYTHERAPY | 5
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