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The capacity to vicariously experience and understand the thoughts and feelings of another person by putting oneself in that person's place.

While most forms of psychotherapy require some degree of empathy on the part of the counselor or therapist, the client-centered therapy pioneered by Carl Rogers places particular emphasis on this quality as part of the therapeutic experience. Instead of looking at the client from outside (external frame of reference), the client-centered therapist attempts to see things as they actually look to the client (internal frame of reference). Throughout each therapy session, the therapist demonstrates what Rogers termed "accurate...