Relational depth and expressions of person-centered practice: a commentary on Sommerbeck et al

This commentary critically examines the interpretation offered by Sommerbeck et al. (2025) of the Dominic case presented by Mearns and Cooper (2005). While I acknowledge that person-centered therapy grounded in empathic understanding responses (EUR) is a legitimate form of practice, several of their criticisms of Mearns appear to rest on misreadings, overly definitive assumptions, and a narrowing of interpretive possibility. Such readings overlook the ambiguity, nonverbal process, and moment-to-moment fluctuation that often shape therapeutic encounters and are essential for understanding Mearns’s way of being with Dominic. I suggest that many of Mearns’s responses – including those that may appear strong or authoritative – can be understood as arising from his deeply engaged presence and his attunement to Dominic’s tentative movement toward greater depth of contact. These dimensions of practice cannot be fully captured within the EUR approach as interpreted and applied by Sommerbeck et al. The aim of this commentary is not to dispute EUR itself but to reopen interpretive space and to show that Working at Relational Depth (WRD) – far from violating core person-centered principles – can also be viewed as an expression of them.