I think, the idea of UPR is greatly misunderstood as a "never judge anything about the client" approach.

First of all, the human mind is conditioned to judge a.k.a to have opinions on different matters which are judgments. We judge a thousand things throughout the day as either "bad" or "good" or "neutral". We have to do that because that's how we make sense of the world around us in order to understand what's the best course of action is for us at each given moment.

Judgments are different though. As it pertains to the behavior of others we are perceived as judgmental when we judge someone as a human being, not necessarily when we judge specific things that they do. As Albert Ellis said once:"I never hated Hitler. I hated what he did, but I didn't hate him as a human being." Thus he makes an important distinction between universally judging someone as "good" or "bad" or judging their actions.

We still could come across as judgmental when we judge other people's choices even when we are trying to be objective and do it just to point out that a particular choice may not be in the person's best interests. While this sounds objective and helpful, the problem with that is that we often lie to ourselves that we point something out in order to help the other person. Oftentimes, unfortunately, we give opinions not because we want to help, as we claim, but because we want to show our moral, spiritual and intellectual superiority, and usually people feel that. You may have no problem accepting judgment of your choices/actions when it comes from one person, but will vehemently reject the same judgment when it comes from somebody else. Because it's not what somebody says that makes a difference but the intention a.k.a energy attached to their words. It's the energy behind the words that people respond to, not the words themselves.

How you receive opinions/judgments also depends on the nature of your relationship with someone. If it's a close friend whom you trust and you know that they always have your best interest in mind, you could accept some pretty harsh judgments coming from them because you know they genuinely think of your best interests. If it's someone you don't have a particularly close relationship with and have no reason and no need to trust their intentions, you'd think "who the hell are you to tell me what to do?" People have to earn their right to point out to us which of our actions aren't helpful. Someone can't just come in and start "helping" me by doing that when they and I have no relationship whatsoever and when I haven't asked for that kind of help. A certain level of relational trust has to be established first in order for our words to be received well, and trust also has to be earned, not given and taken for granted.

In therapy the same principles work as in all other human relationships and interactions. The therapist has to earn their right to point out to me what is and isn't in my best interests. There has to be rapport and good connection established first in order for them to do that so I'd trust that they are coming from the right place. They also have to be brutally honest with themselves when they offer their opinions as far as whether they do it because they want to "rescue" me or "fix" my life or because they just offer an alternative perspective for me to consider. Their true intentions will come across and that will usually determine whether the client will accept their "judgment" or not.

Of course, that's not to say that people can't still perceive you as ill-intended even if it's not the case. But that doesn't contradict what I previously said. The point is that there are many factors that determine whether it is or isn't a good idea to volunteer your judgments at each particular moment. The timing by the way is also a big factor. You may have genuinely good intentions, the other person is not mistrustful but the timing may be wrong. Usually, when someone is in crisis it's not the time to be "helpful" by sharing your opinion about how that person's choices brought them where they are.