Empathy is a critical skill that counselors use in order to make their clients feel understood and supported. In 1957, Carl Rogers published an article that emphasizes the importance of empathy and unconditional positive regard. An article written by Arthur J. Clark that was published in the summer of 2010, in the Journal of Counseling Development, titled Empathy: An Integral Model in the Counseling Process, explains the importance of empathy and the effects it has on the counseling process. Clark’s article is an extension of Roger’s original publication, giving counselors more knowledge on how to use empathy within the counseling field. Throughout the article, Clark explains where Carl Roger’s view contrasts and compares to his personal …show more content…
First, the counselor is able to develop a strong counselor client relationship because the client does not feel judged, which makes the client feel safe, as well as understood and heard. Also, empathy gives the counselor an opportunity to have genuine feeling towards what the client is saying, which helps them better understand their client and what they are experiencing. In addition, empathy can be used in all three different stages of counseling which makes is a very useful skill. For example, Clark explains how silence and reflection are ways to demonstrate empathy, which are skills that can be used throughout the exploration stage, insight stage, and actions stage. Despite all of the strengths in this technique, there are also some limitations. Although empathy is an important skill, not all counselors are able to let go of their beliefs in a way that will allow them to be genuinely empathetic towards their clients (Clark, 2015). For example, many counselors may be disgusted with a client’s action or belief, which can prevent them from being empathetic towards their clients based on their own personal values. Therefore, being empathetic important, but not a skill that is easy for all counselors to practice or develop. Meaning, Clark’s model is strong, but only for counselors who are able to be genuinely empathetic towards their clients, while also being able to keep their personal values and beliefs out of the counseling
One theme of the book that stands out is the counselor as a person and a professional. It is impossible to completely separate one’s personal and professional lives. Each person brings to the table certain characteristics of themselves and this could include such things as values, personality traits and experiences. A great point that Corey, Corey, and Callahan (2010) make is to seek personal therapy. Talking with colleagues or a therapist will keep counselors on their toes and allow them to work out any issues that may arise. This could also prevent counselors from getting into a bad situation. Another good point made in this book was counter transference. Therapists are going to have an opinion and some reactions are going to show through. It is not easy to hide one’s emotions, but a good therapist will keep the objective in sight and keep moving forward. After all, the help counselors are providing is for the client.
To be able to understand how empathy works between a certain group of people, it is necessary to know what empathy means. I found an interesting definition of empathy, as a crucial component of the helping relationship, a need to understand people ' distress, and to provide supportive interpersonal communication. Empathy is the ability to recognize the emotions of others. Empathy does not mean that we live other people’ emotions, but it means that we understand other people ' emotions from our experiences. Empathy does not mean to cancel your personality, but to understand how people perceive the reality. It is the ability to read information coming through nonverbal channels. In this
Burton defines empathy as the ability to not only recognize but also to share another person’s or a fictional character’s or a sentient beings’ emotions. It involves seeing a person’s situation from his or her own perspective and then sharing his or her emotions and distress (1). Chismar posits that to empathize is basically to respond to another person’ perceived state of emotion by experiencing similar feelings. Empathy, therefore, implies sharing another person’s feeling without necessary showing any affection or desire to help. For one to empathize, he or she must at least care for, be interested in or concerned about
Empathy is used to create change in the world by reaching out to the emotions of people and attending to them. It is used to help others learn and decide on matters that would not be reasonable without feelings attached to them. Empathy helps bring together communities that would have long ago drifted apart, but instead welcomed all who were different. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. This attribute of human-beings really allows us to not only attend to situations as if they were our own, but it allows us to feel most of what others feel because humans are very much alike in some ways. In many of the articles and novels that we have read this quarter, characters from different pieces of context have portrayed empathy whether it was toward
Empathy is imperative to teach kids from a young age in order to help them recognize mental states, such as thoughts and emotions, in themselves and others. Vital lessons, such as walking in another’s shoes or looking at a situation in their perspective, apprehends the significance of the feelings of another. Our point of view must continuously be altered, recognizing the emotions and background of the individual. We must not focus all of our attention on our self-interest. In the excerpt, Empathy, written by Stephen Dunn, we analyze the process of determining the sentiment of someone.
Communication of empathy is widely considered to play an important role in developing and maintaining a successful therapeutic relationship between psychologist and client. The term empathy refers to the ability to understand another person’s thoughts and feelings, and to see a situation from that person’s point of view, without judgement (Hazelwood & Shakespeare-Finch, 2011). A therapist’s empathy can be communicated to a client through a variety of different verbal and nonverbal responses. For example, Dowell and Berman (2013) found evidence that high levels of eye contact combined with a forward leaning posture made a significant contribution to clients’ perception of their therapists’ feelings of empathy towards them. An example of the use of eye contact to show empathy can be seen throughout the included video. Moyers and Miller (2013) considered reflecting meaning (also referred to as paraphrasing) to be another method of conveying empathy and understanding to a clien...
Carl Roger, a humanistic psychologist identified that accurate empathy is one of three characteristics of effective therapist. Yalom, provided a short story of a women who had breast cancer and had a grudge against her father until she looked at the situation from her father’s perspective. Unfortunately, when she finally did look at the situation from her father perspective it was too late for her to apologize to him because he passed away. Yalom uses this sort to remind him that clinicians should try and see things from their patient’s point of view.
The counselor accomplishes the above by expressing empathy, developing discrepancies, going along with resistance and supporting self-efficacy. Moreover, the counselor guides the client toward a solution that will lead to permanent posi...
Values, Morals, and Beliefs are components that play a role in an individual’s self-identity. The establishment of these components shape human nature, behavior, and the development of an individual’s purpose. The basis of these fundamentals has contributed to my desire to become a counselor. This paper will discuss my views of human nature, factors of behavior changes, goals of therapy, the roles of a therapist, and the counseling approaches that I chose to incorporate in a practice.
The counselling process is one that may last for as little as one session or for years, it is within the middles stages of the helping relationship that particular counselling skills such as a focusing, challenging and immediacy can be implemented, as well as use of advanced empathy that can be applied due to increased familiarity with a speaker. Many actions may occur within middles stage of the helping relationship such as transitions that occur for a multitude of reasons and the outcome of which can vary based on the attitude of the speaker. Self-awareness remains vital throughout the entire counselling relationship due to the continual influence of empathy in the helping relationship and remaining aware my own motives and values when using advanced empathy and specific counselling skills. Ethics and boundaries are also involved within the counselling process as within a counselling relationship, I as the counsellor, must be careful with the balance or expenditure of power when challenging.
Watson, J. C., Steckley, P. L. & McMullen E. J. (2013). The role of empathy in promoting change. Psychotherapy Research. 24(3), 286-298. doi: 10.1080/10503307.2013.802823
Empathy is the ability to experience and relate to the thoughts, emotions and the experiences of others. Having empathy for someone is to be aware of their feelings and to understand their needs and perspectives. Empathy plays a role in any ethical decision making process that affects or involves more than one person. In making an ethical decision, it is necessary to perceive and eliminate unethical options and to then select the best ethical alternative. Collaborating and discussing multiple perspectives from those affected with different experiences will help in the process of deciding which options are unethical, and eventually the most accepted ethical decision.
Before reading these chapters, and listening to the lectures I had thought empathy was the same thing as sympathy. This brought me back to my first counselling session. It was about ten years ago, and I was telling the counsellor all about my problems at the time. When I looked over to see what she had to say, she was bawling her eyes out beside me. I had always assumed that is what empathy looked like, because I never understood the difference between the two, until now.
“Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself”(Hamid 1). Empathy gives people the ability to understand and share the feelings of one to another. This idea is being overlooked today due to the fact that society is becoming more self centered. Beings that empathy is overlooked, many feel that it is no longer needed and unvaluable. When people disregard empathy, the quality of conversations tend to take a steep decline. This topic as a whole needs to be used daily because it is extremely beneficial to personal connections. Empathy not only helps better understand others, but it helps oneself grow as a person. Continuously practicing this social skill will lead to more complex conversations and broaden the ability to understand
Social psychologist Daniel Batson states that people are more willing to help when they feel empathy. Conversely, if they do not feel such thing, they would not be prone to help or change their motives to any type of social exchange, (Aroson, Wilson, & Akert, 2007).