April 2022 Clinical Supervision Topic: Unconditional Positive Regard

Hey! Glad you are here.

Have you ever known someone who just seemed to adore you? Who held a big space for you to exist in? I’ll be honest, my golden retriever Annie is a pro at this.

Carl Rogers popularized the term unconditional positive regard, and he really believed that with this (in addition to five other necessary and sufficient conditions) in place, a person could fully self-actualize.

My sense of unconditional positive regard is that it is this beautiful emphasis on acceptance, on coming home to yourself, on permission to exist, to let go of any rejecting, judgmental messages. In some ways, it’s an invitation to let go and be loved or at least held safely, and by doing so, return to the truest self. As a clinician, providing this space for clients is, of course, an ongoing practice.

A few resources I like that I feel embody this concept include:

• The Kind Eyes exercise from Diane Poole Heller’s DARE work.

• Sonya Renee Taylor on body image and acceptance.

• Resmaa Menakem and contextualizing trauma, especially racialized trauma.

Check out our discussions on this topic from 2020 and 2021. Please feel free to bring your own resources to share around this!