refers to the explicit communication by the therapist of his conscious perceptions, attitudes and feelings. This aspect is called 'transparency': becoming 'transparent' to the client through communication of personal impressions and experiences. Although this splitting up of genuineness into two components may be slightly artificial, we find it justified from a didactic point of view as well as clinically meaningful. Indeed, a congruent therapist may be very or minimally transparent, according to his style or orientation; a transparent therapist may be congruent, or he may be incongruent (something which makes him or her a 'dangerous' therapist). In a first point, we will discuss the concept of congruence, which has always been given the most weight in Rogers' definition. In a second one, we will then deal with transparency.1. CongruenceWhy did Rogers come to attach so much importance to the therapist's congruence, and why did he even come to see it as the most fundamental basic attitude? We hope to answer this question gradually, while further explaining the concept itself.Personal PresenceRogers was always opposed to the idea of the therapist as a 'white screen'. He designed a 'face-to-face' type of therapy, in which the therapist is highly involved with the client's experiential world, and in which he, consequently, shows little of himself. Yet he does show his involvement in an open and direct way, withouthiding his real feelings behind a professional facade. He tries to be himself without artificiality and haziness.By adopting such a 'natural', spontaneous attitude, the client-centred therapist certainly does not favour the process of regression and transference; but Rogers did not see this 'detour-process' as essential to personality change. More than the psychoanalysts, he believed in the therapeutic value of a 'real'relationship between client and therapist, and saw other, more important advantages in it as well. In such a working relationship, the therapist serves as a model: his congruence encourages the client to take risks himself in order to become himself. Along with this, Rogers gradually came to consider the therapist's congruence as a crucial factor in establishing trust, and came to emphasise the idea of acceptance and empathy only being effective when they are perceived as genuine:Can I be in some way which will be perceived by the other person as trustworthy, as dependable or consistent in some deep sense? Both research and experience indicate that this is very important,and over the years I have found what I believe are deeper and better ways of answering thisquestion. I used to feel that if I fulfilled all the outer conditions of trustworthiness - keeping appointments, respecting the confidential nature of the interviews, etc. - and if I acted consistently the same during the interviews, then this condition would be fulfilled.But experience drove home the fact that to act consistently acceptant, for example, if in fact I was feeling annoyed or sceptical or some other non-acceptant feeling, was certain in the long run to be perceived as inconsistent or untrustworthy. I have come to recognise that being trustworthy does not demand that I be rigidlyconsistent but that I be dependably real.