Well, it depends on what you mean by empathy, of course.

By empathy I mean 'empathetic attunement' of the sort that theorists such as Kohut focus on as the most healing part of the theraputic relationship.

Kohut's stance on empathetic attunement has been the subject of numerous critiques. Ego psychologists rejected / mocked it for example by caricaturing it as the view that one could 'cure by love'. Ego psychology is much more 'confrontational' and focused on interpretations rather than empathy.

Kohut's stance on empathetic attunement has also been critiqued by CBT therapists (including pure cognitive therapists and pure behavioural therapists). They critiqued it on the grounds that theraputic progress was about educating the client into their thought distortions and educating the client as to the utility of of such things as activity scheduling and employing extinction / flooding techniques etc.

A great deal of this depends on what is meant by 'empathy'. The majority of people would agree that empathy is important. It is important for receptionists and waitresses and dentists and plastic surgeons and nurses to be empathetic. For some theorists empathy is the background non-specific effects that ALL varieties of therapy (and seeing psychiatrists and councellors etc) are supposed to have in common.

Kohut's view is that there is a particular kind of empathy - empathetic attunement that is more than a non-specific effect of therapy, however. It isn't a kind of empathy that one finds in receptionists and waitresses and dentists and plastic surgeons. It is a particular therapy technique. What is it? Schore has elaborated on it... It is a mirroring of emotional response, basically. Emotions in synch. Emotional attunement. Emotions can be used to communicate and as part of a 'holding environment' (part of Winncott's 'good enough' mother). While other theorists maintain that therapists are skilled professionals in virtue of knowing certain strategies and skills (such as activity scheduling, altering thought distortions etc) other theorists (Kohut, Schore, Winnicott etc) maintain that therapists are skilled professionals in virtue of knowing a particular strategy - that of empathetic attunement.

It is the empathetic attunement that I need. Extrordinary empathetic capacity that only some therapists value / are good at / see the curative power in...