what is unconditional positive regard?

Humanistic psychology recognizes end emphasizes the power of unconditional positive regard in psychological learning, healing, and growth. When we as clients are held in this way by the good-enough therapist, we are able to respond much the way a flower does to the morning sun:

"Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true."

- Viktor E. Frankl, an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor, who founded a branch of existential and humanist psychology, from his book, "Man's Search for Meaning."