1,128
5
Essay, 2 pages (500 words)

Empathy

Empathy On a Saturday afternoon, I went to visit a colleague in the nearby grocery store where she has been working for almost a year now. Back then, my friend had a serious problem about her husband who was at that time having an extra marital affair. At first, I had no clue on what is going on until she started asking awkward questions such as “ Would you personally consider yourself having a relationship with a married man and has a child?” Even though I find her question a bit offending, I still managed to give her a more positive outlook in life. In the process of feeling and understanding what she was feeling, it was so much easier for me to help her go through the emotional and psychological pain she was at that point experiencing.
To be able to deliver a good empathic therapy, therapists should not only be honest but also show a sense of caring to the patient, personal warmth, sympathy, understanding, respect, acceptance, and trust (Martin 8). Because of my sensitivity to other‘ s feelings and quick thinking (Martin 9), I strongly believe that I was able to make my friend feel better after spending some time talking about her pain.
Johari window is a self-awareness model that is widely used in the field of psychology. Specifically the Johari window strongly suggest that the four sides of each person include the following scenarios: (1) what is known to self and others; (2) what is known to self but not people; (3) what is unknown to self but known to others; and (4) what is unknown to self and others. In our case, it seems that both of us are aware that she was at that point experiencing something bad. Back then, my personal ability to feel, speak, listen, and uncover her true feelings made her cry in front of me. Basically, the act of crying was a physical manifestation of what she was truly feeling about her husband’s unfaithfulness and infidelity. In fact, there is a strong possibility that my long-time friend has been hiding the emotional and psychological burden she was feeling for quite a long time.
Based on my one-on-one conversation with my friend, I would give it a score of “ 2” because of the fact that I had simply responded to the expressed feelings of my friend. In response to my friend’s subjective response to what she was really feeling back then, I was able to communicate back that I was aware of what she was feeling. In general, a good and effective empathy therapy is one that promotes greater independence on the part of the patient. To further improve my empathy, it is necessary for me to slowly learn how to be able to be more sensitive to hearing out or observing non-verbal cues such as crying and showing sad, deep sighs, or frowning face among others. In real life practice, it is not easy to learn to have more empathy to other people. Over time, continuous practice and experience can help therapists learn to practice empathic therapy with more finesse.
Total Number of Words: 516
References
Martin, D. G. Counseling & Therapy Skills. 3rd Edition. Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press, 2010. Print.

Thank's for Your Vote!
Empathy. Page 1
Empathy. Page 2
Empathy. Page 3

This work, titled "Empathy" was written and willingly shared by a fellow student. This sample can be utilized as a research and reference resource to aid in the writing of your own work. Any use of the work that does not include an appropriate citation is banned.

If you are the owner of this work and don’t want it to be published on AssignBuster, request its removal.

Request Removal
Cite this Essay

References

AssignBuster. (2021) 'Empathy'. 10 December.

Reference

AssignBuster. (2021, December 10). Empathy. Retrieved from https://assignbuster.com/empathy/

References

AssignBuster. 2021. "Empathy." December 10, 2021. https://assignbuster.com/empathy/.

1. AssignBuster. "Empathy." December 10, 2021. https://assignbuster.com/empathy/.


Bibliography


AssignBuster. "Empathy." December 10, 2021. https://assignbuster.com/empathy/.

Work Cited

"Empathy." AssignBuster, 10 Dec. 2021, assignbuster.com/empathy/.

Get in Touch

Please, let us know if you have any ideas on improving Empathy, or our service. We will be happy to hear what you think: [email protected]