As a therapist, it is important to develop and develop a connection with a client. In psychology, empathy follows the aspect of predicting a client’s outcome through understanding and living their situation as if it were your own. In other words, investigating a client’s perceptions and accepting how the client is feeling in a way that one ‘places themselves in the client’s shoes’ and explores their feelings. Empathy follows compassion in that the person expressing empathy must be able to understand what the other person id feeling like and allow themselves to care for the wellbeing of that person. Additionally, empathy is built along the lines of trying to understand someone by assessing their situation and trying to understand their situation. In this analysis, we will review how empathy can be applied to make someone feel better in and outside a medical setting. A person does not need to be a therapist or a psychologist to express empathy and connect with another person and help them out.
Empathy Research
Different studies have been conducted to understand the extent of psychology and how it is applied at different levels in medicine to help clients. Many researchers such as MacFarlane et al. (2017) have expressed that empathy is always aimed at making a client become better. As such, there is a need to involve clients instead of making general assumptions about therapy. In their analysis, MacFarlane et al. (2017) found out that the relationship between a person who empathy has been expressed and the one who expresses empathy leads to a better understanding of empathy. The idea is of the stand that psychotherapy is two-way traffic in which both parties have to participate equally. Counseling follows a structure of understanding in which the counselor understands their clients and directs them accordingly by creating an empathetic connection (MacFarlane, et al., 2017). Nienhuis et al. (2018) found out that there must be a specific bond between a client and the therapist that makes them connect both intellectually and emotionally for an emotional alliance. Such an alliance is only possible when the client is sure that the therapist is in a position to help them. As such, the application of therapy follows the creation of trust which can only happen when both parties are open to each other and about themselves. As such, empathy can be influenced by perceptions from both sides which can affect therapeutic alliance. Such an alliance is important in counseling in that the bond between a therapist and the client is poised towards improvement and therapeutic goals agreement (Nienhuis, et al., 2018). A client who visits a therapist needs to be given a chance to be who they are and to express their feelings and emotions to deliver effective therapy services.
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Additionally, developing empathy requires emotional intelligence. It is hard for someone to connect with and understand other people if they lack the necessary tools required to make an emotional connection with that person and understand them while avoiding being judgmental to them (Serrat, 2017). For instance, Serrat (2017) argues that “People who possess a high degree of emotional intelligence know themselves very well and are also able to sense the emotions of others” and that “They are affable, resilient, and optimistic.” From this perspective, we can deduce that counseling officers have higher levels of perception when it comes to developing connections with their clients. We can argue that a person who is unable to manage their emotional distresses cannot help another person whose therapy needs become better.
Summary of the Literature
Counseling requires that a therapist be aware of what is going on with their client. At the same time, the necessary environment for sessions must be created. In this case, a client must feel secure when they are around their therapist and be able to open up to them. As such, there is a need to possess a given set of skills that are required for empathy to be expressed. For instance, when a person with emotional intelligence is having a moment with their friend who is experiencing depressing situations, such a person must know the extent to which they address the case. That is, they must know the right kind of questions to ask and allow their emotions to connect with that of their friend. At the same time, a person must be ready to share on a personal capacity and help their friend feel better and realize that there are people who have overcome situations like the one they are going through and have ended up being better.
In any case, the application of empathy in counseling should not be viewed as a professional courtesy. People should know that the ability to connect with others and share with them emotionally is a good indication of being empathetic. People feel vulnerable when they are going through hard times. The fear to share is high. In such a case, therapy helps such people develop a new spirit and embrace positivity when they are understood and cared about.
Response Activity
A full day is long when people are sharing at a personal level. However, I was able to learn that sharing with others gave me a different perspective on how things should be when it comes to being empathetic. The experience was uplifting and I found myself feeling better than I was before the day started. I learned more about myself and I was able to connect with others without being judgmental.
As I allowed myself to connect through allowing others to tell more about how they were feeling. Many people thought that I was hiding stuff. However, when I talked about my family and how Covid-19 has defined our living experiences, I found out that most people were faced with the same dilemma. I thought that my family was having it hard but I realized that some were going through worse experiences. After sharing, people were able to appreciate me the more and welcomed my situation.
Most of the people I met were too afraid to talk about what was happening in their homes. Few details involving the state of the pandemic in the state and country were discussed with little information about personal experiences. However, people started to react positively when stories started to get personal and were able to accommodate each other and developed a positive attitude that made people feel welcomed and accommodated.
Most people feel that when they share they are vulnerable. As such, they prefer listening to people’s stories and advising them according to how things are perceived around them instead of connecting with them emotionally and share with their feelings. As such, judgment has become more of a norm rather than being empathetic which is seen as a weakness.
Indeed, our lives cannot exist at the same level. There are those who at any given moment are feeling low while others are ecstatic. At this point, it is advisable to learn how to accommodate each other and try to understand those who are around us. As Christians, the idea is embedded in biblical teachings of having to love every person as we love ourselves. Empathy is taught indirectly in that we learn to be more appreciating and understanding of other people. That kind of approach should guide us and have us develop a level of understanding towards other people.
References
MacFarlane, P., Anderson, T., & McClintock, A. S. (2017). Empathy from the client's perspective: A grounded theory analysis. Psychotherapy Research , 27 (2), 227-238.
Nienhuis, J. B., Owen, J., Valentine, J. C., Winkeljohn Black, S., Halford, T. C., Parazak, S. E., ... & Hilsenroth, M. (2018). Therapeutic alliance, empathy, and genuineness in individual adult psychotherapy: A meta-analytic review. Psychotherapy Research , 28 (4), 593-605.
Serrat, O. (2017). Understanding and developing emotional intelligence. In Knowledge solutions (pp. 329-339). Springer, Singapore.
