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Importance of communication in a relationship
Importance of communication in a relationship
The importance of communication in a relationship
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Interpersonal communication skills are an important asset in most professions, but are considered to be especially vital in the profession of psychology. Anderson, Ogles, Patterson, Lambert, & Vermeersch (2009) report that the quality of a therapist’s interpersonal skills is an important factor to be considered when predicting the outcome of psychotherapy. Empathic communication can have a significant effect on building rapport, and on the overall client-therapist relationship. Paraphrasing can be used to facilitate deeper understanding, and can also have an impact on the outcome of therapy. This essay will discuss some of the literature assessing the importance of these two skills, and will include a reflection on the way they are used in the attached video.
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...
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... J. (2011). I’m listening: Communication for health professionals. Brisbane: Inn Press.
Moyers, T.B., & Miller, W.R. (2013). Is low therapist empathy toxic?. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 27(3), 878-884. doi: 10.1037/a0030274
Rhodes, R.H., Hill, C.E., Thompson, B.J., & Elliott, R. (1994). Client retrospective recall of resolved and unresolved misunderstanding events. Journal of Counseling Psychology 41(4), 473-483. doi: 10.1037/0022-0167.41.4.473
Ridgway, I.R., & Sharpley, C.F. (1990). Empathic interactional sequences and counsellor trainee effectiveness. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 3(3), 257-265. doi: 10.1080/09515079008254256
Sharpley, C.F., Fairnie, E., Tabary-Collins, E., Bates, R., & Lee, P. (2000) The use of counsellor verbal response modes and client-perceived rapport. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 13(1), 99-116. doi: 10.1080/09515070050011097
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 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.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze a video entitled Psychodynamic-Interpersonal Counseling & Psychotherapy (Brooks-Harris &Oliveira-Berry, 2004). The video features Dr. Jeff Brooks-Harris and Dr. Jill Oliveira-Berry demonstrating sixteen skills drawn from psychodynamic and interpersonal approaches to psychotherapy.
Listening is a vital and important part of communication. While speaking clearly and concisely is imperative, true listening is central to speaking with mindfulness and in the case of the counselor, this mindfulness has the possibility of leading clients to their own solutions to life’s tough circumstances. In his book, Petersen (2007) breaks down the communication cycle so that we can be aware of how we react when people share their emotions with us, and how to effectively communicate by listening and speaking in turn to build strong and supportive relationships, whether they are personal or professional.
A positive relationship between the client and an empathetic therapist provides the client with a safe space and opportunity to express themselves and feel understood and accepted. Building the client-therapist relationship will occur at the onset of therapy, and will continue to be built and maintained throughout the process. A relationship is built through engagement between the two parties, particularly the therapist being involved and interested in what the client is interested in at that time (Cavett, 2015). This includes asking questions to show interest and allowing the client to take the lead on play. In encouraging a supportive relationship, a large component is the client feeling not only understood by the therapist, but also to feel accepted by the therapist throughout the therapeutic process. Building relationship within my therapeutic practice will include providing praise to the client for their effort within therapy, rather than focusing on the quality of how they are doing in therapy. Kottman and Ashby (2015) reflect on this by explaining that this is a way to build confidence within the client and portray to them that they are competent in learning and doing things for themselves. After
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.
...ing silence, paraphrasing and reflection of feelings, as well as non-verbal skills such as body-language and active listening are all used in order to allow the client to introspect and work with their problems in a safe environment, the role of the counselor within the relationship being to support the client and help them to reach their true potential by expressing emotions and thoughts that they can’t express outside of the helping relationship, whether it be for fear of rejection or some other reason.
Bylund, C., Peterson, E., & Cameron, K. (2011). A practitioner’s guide to interpersonal communication theory: An overview and exploration of selected theories. Patient Education and Counselling. Volume 87. Issue 3. Pages 261- 267. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2011.10.006.
When using empathy with a client, the nurse is able to step into their shoes and understand what they are going through, essentially feeling what they feel (Barkin, 2011, as cited in Davies, 2014, p. 198). Ward et al., (2012) found that being able to communicate on the same platform as your client, meaning to place yourself in the same mindset as them is critically important to create a foundation of reliance (as cited in Davis, 2014, p. 198). Research by Davies (2014) found that embracing the empathic method not only requires you to venture into the mind of your client, but it also necessitates the ability to slide your own personal thoughts and emotions out of the way and dedicate all focus on the individual before you (p. 201). These thoughts expressed by each author, encircle what I already find to be most valuable in a nurse. Acquiring the skills to push your own feelings aside, with emphasis added on not being judgmental is very crucial to building a healthy relationship with your
Another noteworthy feature of this approach is the chance to empathize. In most forms of therapy, empathy is not used: why would you want to add more conflict to an already difficult situation? Well, as counterintuitive as it may seem, it does have standing. By definition empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of another person. In this context empathy serves as an indirect way for readers to relive and recall their own experiences.
The essay then outlines and critically evaluates counselling skills such as body language, silences and reflective communication skills amongst others used during Eric’s third session while highlighting areas of improvement and identifying alternative options. The essay concludes with offering and exploring possible directions for future counselling sessions.
Lots of studies around animal behavior and neuroscience claim that empathy is not just restricted to humans but can be found in other mammals, more specifically dolphins (White, 2007). The brainstem, insula, hypothalamus, amygdala, basal ganglia and the orbitofrontal cortex are parts of the brain which are involved in how empathy is developed. (Decety & Scetlova, 2012). Decety (2011) argues that empathy has neurological and evolutionary traits and that the most advanced forms of empathy in humans are connected to mechanisms connected with social attachment and primary
This essay will attempt to highlight and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the three main theories of counselling within the module covered this term. The three approaches in discussion are psychodynamics, cognitive behavioural and humanistic.
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, defined by the Merriam- Webster Dictionary, is “the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object, so that the object appears to be infused with it,” and also as, “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.” In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, empathy, has no synonyms or antonyms. However, upon further investigation into the dictionary it is found that, empathy is used as a synonym for sympathy, or, “an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things