Empathy and empathic responses lie at the heart of Person-centred counselling.
I want to be as close as I can be to my clients' experiences and to remove any barriers that lie between us. However, I do not want to lose a sense of who I am: I want to be here for my clients as myself. I don't want to lose myself in them but want to understand their experiences as best I can: who they are, what their life is, what they are feeling. I want them to know that I am trying and, perhaps, succeeding.
As Carl Rogers wrote: as a counsellor, you try to "sense the client’s private world as if it was your own, but without losing the 'as if' quality". Just one of many knife-edges in the profession!
Hi Steve. You wrote about a lot in a little post, here. Reminded me how important it is to continuously try to look at things from the patient's point of view. How important it is, when we are tired, or discouraged ourselves, not to slip into being judgmental or impatient. And then, of course, you spoke to the other side, not becoming so sympathetic that we allow our own boundaries to become blurred. (quite the task, being a therapist, isn't it).
ReplyDeleteThe therapeutic road that any one patient travels is each so unique in so many aspects--timing, a direct or meandering route, destinations that can change; I try to stay ready and open. When I am doing the best at that is when the most interesting and surprising things happen. Trust is what it's all about.