81- Facilitating the establishment of rapport and trust
- Helping patients feel understood by the counselor
- Helping patients manage their feelings
- Facilitating patient risk-taking, discussion of unpleasant emotions, and reduction
of nonproductive anger, overwhelming anxiety or other strong feelings
(Greenberg and Pascual-Leone 2006 ; Hill 2014 ; Schema et al. 2015 )
4.3 How Empathy Occurs: Origins and Mechanisms
Empathy is both innate and learned. Many theorists and researchers believe the
essence of one’s ability to sense another person’s experience is present in infancy
and develops during childhood and adolescence through the interaction of genetic
and environmental factors (e.g., Gladstein 1983 ; Knafo et al. 2008 ). Have you ever
noticed, for instance, in a nursery or daycare setting, when one infant becomes
distressed and cries, other infants begin to cry as well? Some researchers think this
behavior is evidence of the beginnings of empathy (Azar 1997 ). As children mature,
they may be socialized through their interactions with parents and others to reso-
nate with people’s feelings and perspectives. Once a sufficient level of cognitive
ability develops, the older child/adolescent is capable of communicating this
understanding in a more sophisticated manner. Although the ability to understand
another person’s experience probably cannot be taught to adults, adults can, through
appropriate learning activities, develop better skills for communicating their
understanding to others (Gladstein 1983 ). They also can learn to focus their
empathic ability.
Opportunities to expand empathy skills come from professional experiences
(cf. Zahm et al. 2016 ). Runyon et al.’s ( 2010 ) sample of practicing genetic coun-
selors noted they cultivated empathy by listening to patients and determining
patients’ needs. A number of their participants mentioned that interactions with
patients taught them the importance of empathy and how to manage difficult
patient feelings as well as their own emotions. Opportunities for developing empa-
thy skills also come from personal life experiences (cf. Zahm et al. 2016 ). Genetic
counselors’ essays illustrate the influence of personal life events on their empathy
in the clinical setting, including being the recipients themselves of genetic coun-
seling services (Cohen 2002 ; Hatten 2002 ; Keilman 2002 ; Valverde 2002 ), having
a pregnancy affected with multiple abnormalities (Anonymous 2008 ), having a
child with a medical condition (Bellcross 2012 ), and being diagnosed with a seri-
ous medical condition (Glessner 2012 ). These authors describe how their experi-
ences led to a qualitatively different perspective about their work, including deeper
empathy (e.g., they are better able to anticipate patient questions and concerns).
Importantly, however, these authors also describe a need to strike a balance
between empathy and projecting their own experiences onto patients (see Chap. 12
countertransference).
4.3 How Empathy Occurs: Origins and Mechanisms