THERAPIST PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS - AN UNEXPLORED INFLUENCE ON CLIENTDISCLOSURE

Existing research indicates that clients perceive facially attractive therapists as more competent, trustworthy, genuine, and effective than less attractive therapists. No studies exist to help explain how, the therapist's attractiveness influences a client's self-disclosure. Par ticipants (n = 241) were randomly assigned to one of eight experimenta l groups to test the interaction of the therapist's attractiveness, cl ient's gender, the nature of presenting problem, and the client's comf ort with disclosing in a hypothetical couple therapy, scenario. Analyi s of variance procedures established that most participants reported f eeling more comfortable disclosing a benign (communication) problem th an a potentially embarrassing (sexual) problem, and more comfortable d isclosing problems to an attractive than to a less attractive female t herapist. Therapists are encouraged to understand the power attractive ness may have in their own and their clients' lives.