When the other person is hurting, confused, troubled, anxious, alienated, terrified; or when he or she is doubtful of self-worth, uncertain as to identity, then understanding is called for. The gentle and sensitive companionship of an empathic stance… provides illumination and healing. In such situations deep understanding is, I believe, the most precious gift one can give to another.
Carl R. Roger
When someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without trying to take responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good. . . . When I have been listened to and when I have been heard, I am able to re-perceive my world in a new way and to go on. It is astonishing how elements which seem insoluble become soluble when someone listens. How confusions which seem irremediable turn into relatively clear flowing stream when one is heard.
Carl R. Rogers
If I can listen to what he can tell me, if I can understand how it seems to him; if I can see its personal meaning for him, if I can sense the emotional flavour which it has for him, then I will be releasing potent forces of change in him.
Carl R. Rogers
The act of revealing oneself fully to another and still being accepted may be the major vehicle of therapeutic help.
Irvin D. Yalom
We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said.” Love is the only rational act.
Morrie Schwart