The Importance of Empathy, Warmth, and Genuineness in Therapy
The human services field is one that approaches the objectives of meeting human needs through the incorporation of prevention and remediation to improve quality of life. However, to success to realized, professions in this field must establish therapeutic alliances with their clients. Human service professionals can facilitate a definite partnership with clients through skills such as empathy, warmth and genuineness
Empathy
According to Frances and Weikel, empathy involves the ability of a therapist to understand the feelings of the client with sensitivity and to communicate the understanding to the client. Being empathetic ensures that the therapist is listening and dealing with the concerns of the client as he or she presents them. Stewart, Zediker, and Witteborn’s essay on empathic and dialogic listening applies and incorporates social construction approaches to interpersonal communication during counselling (Stewart, 2012). According to the piece, therapists are expected to consider selective responses, contexts of the session, and intensity of the feelings when communicating with the clients. In cases where some clients to not respond well to discussing their feelings, it might be appropriate for the therapist to respond only to more concrete elements such as behaviour and experiences. Regarding contexts, therapists are to take all aspects into account, including nonverbal behaviour because when taken in context, therapists understand their clients more. Therapists are expected to respond to the feelings presented at the right level of intensity (Sanders, 2018). For example, if the client is very agitated about being evicted and their mother being sick, the client response should reflect both the feeling that the client is experiencing and the reason for that feeling. Thus a client can say, ‘I feel depressed that you are being evicted and your mother is sick”.
Warmth
Warmth is the capacity to care and show concern for clients without any attempt or desire to judge their own and control them. Frances and Weikel posit that the demeanour of human service professional is the primary avenue for communicating with the client (Frances & Weikel, 2014). Therefore, it is through warmth that therapists convey their acceptance of patients and the goodwill for clients’ wellbeing. Stewart, Zedeker and Witteborn’s dialogic listening argue that warmth is best expressed when the therapist focus on attending behaviour (Stewart, 2012). Attending encompasses the counsellors orienting themselves physically to the client to indicate to the client that they have their full undivided attention. Examples would include maintaining eye contact, encouraging gestures, and leaning forwards slightly. Petersen suggests that in assisting clients in relaxing, therapists can incorporate their repertoire, a skill that involves sitting in the same sitting position as the client (Petersen, 2015). With attending behaviour, clients feel comfortable to trust, which in turn enhances their capacity to communicate.
Genuineness
Genuineness describes the authenticity of the therapist in the counselling relationship. In the therapeutic triad, genuineness is an essential element for the communication process; the degree to which the therapist can be honest with himself and with the client establishes the basis for the therapeutic relationship (Cook, Schwartz, & Kaslow, 2017). Several personal features enhance a therapist’s ability to prove genuineness. The first is the capacity for self-awareness. According to Stewart, Zediker and Wittenborn, a therapist can only demonstrate the capacity for self-awareness by presenting their feelings, thoughts and actions in an honest, consistent and unified manner (Stew2012). The awareness should also illustrate the ability of the human service provider’s understanding of his or her motivational patterns as well as the ability to utilize them effectively in enhancing the therapeutic alliance while remaining impartial and non-judgmental. The second is self-sharing. Counsellors are capable of deep self-disclosure. However, the disclosure must only happen at the right time and must be directed towards the realization of the goals of the counselling process. Frances and Weikel indicate that therapist genuineness involving self-disclosure can be influential in the process for personality change and healing in the client (Frances & Weikel, 2014). The reason is that the openness of a human service professional permits clients to risk themselves speak their issues.
References
Cook, S. C., Schwartz, A. C., & Kaslow, N. J. (2017). Evidence-based psychotherapy: advantages and challenges. Neurotherapeutics, 14(3), 537–545. doi: 10.1007/s13311-017-0549-4
Frances, K., & Weikel, K. (2014). Helping skills for human service workers: Building relationships and encouraging change (3rd ed). Springfield, IL. Charles C. Thomas
Petersen, J. (2015).Why don’t we listen better? Communicating & connecting in relationships (2nd ed.). Portland, OR: Petersen Publication
Sanders, C. (2018). From both sides now: the therapeutic relationship from the viewpoint of the therapist and client. The Therapeutic Relationship in Systemic Therapy, 158–175. doi: 10.4324/9780429483431-10
Stewart, J. (2012). Bridges, not Walls: A book about interpersonal communication (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill