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Warmth is the ability to communicate and demonstrate genuine caring and concern for clients (Skovholt, 2005). Using this ability, counselors and therapists convey their acceptance of clients, their desire for clients’ well-being, and their sincere interest in finding workable solutions to the problems that clients present. The demeanor of the counselor or therapist is often the main avenue for communicating and demonstrating warmth, for it is often through nonverbal behaviors—a smile, a touch, tone of voice, a facial expression—that genuine caring and concern are communicated. The counselor’s or therapist’s capacity for transmitting concerns and caring to clients, either verbally or nonverbally, enables clients to experience, often for the first time, a truly accepting relationship.

Personal characteristics or behaviors that enhance a counselor’s or therapist’s ability to demonstrate warmth include, but are not limited to, the following:

 The capacity for self-care, and the ability to demonstrate this capacity in both actions and words

 The capacity for self-acceptance, basing this acceptance on one’s assets and liabilities

 The desire for one’s own well-being, and the ability to demonstrate this desire through both words and actions

 The desire to find, and successful personal experience in finding, workable solutions to one’s own problems, and the ability to communicate this desire through words and actions