Tag
empathy
Articles tagged "empathy".
8 articles
Empathy in Chinese Culture: The Role of Differential Mode of Association
Empathy is a fundamental concept in psychotherapy. As a robust predictor of client outcomes (Elliott et al., 2018), its importance is self-evident. Most therapists are able to recognize the significance of empathy when they first begin their training, and additionally spend a significant amount of time learning how to practice empathy. However, both trainees and […]
Xu Zhu, PhD + 2 more
April 9, 2025
Navigating the Empathic Process During a Global Pandemic
Increasingly, clinical psychology literature points to a relationship between therapists’ self-regulation and their capacity to effectively treat patients. Indeed, theorists have suggested that therapists’ self-regulation – including their capacity to be self-reflective and mindful with patients – tends to facilitate therapeutic empathy (Buechler, 2008), rupture resolution (Safran & Muran, 2000), and mutual recognition (Benjamin, 2018). […]
Shannon L. McIntyre, Ph.D.
August 30, 2020
An Integrative Review of Therapeutic Empathy
The Complex Nature of Therapeutic Empathy Therapeutic empathy has long been identified as a particularly robust predictor of outcome (e.g., Elliot et al., 2018; Lafferty et al., 1989; Luborsky et al., 1988), yet its complexity has made it difficult to operationalize. Historically, some theorists have emphasized the sensory-emotional components (Kohut, 1959; Titchener, 1915), while others […]
Shannon L. McIntyre, Ph.D. + 1 more
March 8, 2020
Crossing the Distance Between You and Me
The interpersonal difficulties experienced by patients diagnosed with a personality disorder (PD) can pose difficulty in negotiating a strong therapeutic alliance between patient and therapist (Muran, Segal, Samstag, & Crawford, 1994; Stern, 1938; Vaillant, 1992; Waldinger & Gunderson, 1984). For instance, therapists of patients diagnosed with Cluster B (i.e., “dramatic, emotional, erratic”) PDs often rate […]
Benjamin N. Johnson, M.S. + 1 more
June 23, 2019
Problematic Empathy in Counseling and Psychotherapy
What happens when a client recounts a horrible act of violence in which they were the perpetrator and for which they express enjoyment and a lack of remorse? How do therapists react? Would they experience a lack of empathy or would they over-empathize in an attempt to connect with the client? Current research suggests that […]
Alison Shimoda, B.S. + 1 more
December 23, 2018
Microaggressions in Psychotherapy
Microaggressions have been linked to reductions in psychological and physical health (Sue, 2010). The term racial microaggression is a term first utilized by Pierce (1970) to describe the subtle, jarring, typically automatic or unconscious, verbal and nonverbal exchanges; often perceived as understated, insulting “put downs” directed at people of color. Sue et al. (2007) did […]
TaShara D. Williams, M.A. + 2 more
December 30, 2017
What About the Words?
By ‘augmenting human intellect’ we mean increasing the capability…to approach a complex problem situation…a way of life in an integrated domain where hunches, cut-and-dry, intangibles, and the human ‘feel for a situation’ usefully co-exist with powerful concepts, streamlined terminology and notation, sophisticated methods, and high-powered electronic aids. (Engelbart, 1962/2001, p.1) Psychotherapy is certainly a complex […]
Brian T. Pace, M.S. + 7 more
October 25, 2016
Using Imagination and Literature to Enhance Therapeutic Abilities
Jeremy Holmes (2014) offers here a book, rich with the wisdom of an experienced clinician, that celebrates the imagination as an essential component of the psychotherapeutic process, using examples from literature to provide insight into important aspects of clinical work. He argues that literature and psychodynamic therapy share an “aesthetics” based upon a “paradoxical combination […]
David H. Thurn, Ph.D., LCSW-R
September 28, 2015