What is Empathy?
What is Empathy?
By: Katy Fedurek
Empathy is one of the most important qualities of a social worker. In Merriam-Webster's dictionary, the definition of empathy is "the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner."
Social workers deal with many different people with diverse issues. Clients come from many different backgrounds and each person has different life experiences that shape them into who they are. In the National Association of Social Work Code of Ethics, dignity, and worth of the person, is one of the main ethical principles related to empathy. This value leads social workers to respect each client's unique situation and help them reach their full potential.
source: http://agilitrix.com/2013/01/how-to-express-empathy-avoid-the-traps/
Working with others different than yourself can be very challenging, even for the most experienced social workers. Carl Rodgers, an important psychologist and the father of talk therapy, was an influential role in the research regarding empathy. Rodgers claimed, "Being empathic means: "To be with another in this way means that for the time being you lay aside the views and values you hold for yourself in order to enter another's world without prejudice." Social workers must help change their clients for the better, even if the solution and change is something small like a persons' behavior. Social workers cannot assume how their clients are feeling and must keep an open mind, considering their client's beliefs and experiences. This information is important to understand as an upcoming social worker because empathy is a very prominent quality in the field.
By: Katy Fedurek
Empathy is one of the most important qualities of a social worker. In Merriam-Webster's dictionary, the definition of empathy is "the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner."
Social workers deal with many different people with diverse issues. Clients come from many different backgrounds and each person has different life experiences that shape them into who they are. In the National Association of Social Work Code of Ethics, dignity, and worth of the person, is one of the main ethical principles related to empathy. This value leads social workers to respect each client's unique situation and help them reach their full potential.
source: http://agilitrix.com/2013/01/how-to-express-empathy-avoid-the-traps/
Working with others different than yourself can be very challenging, even for the most experienced social workers. Carl Rodgers, an important psychologist and the father of talk therapy, was an influential role in the research regarding empathy. Rodgers claimed, "Being empathic means: "To be with another in this way means that for the time being you lay aside the views and values you hold for yourself in order to enter another's world without prejudice." Social workers must help change their clients for the better, even if the solution and change is something small like a persons' behavior. Social workers cannot assume how their clients are feeling and must keep an open mind, considering their client's beliefs and experiences. This information is important to understand as an upcoming social worker because empathy is a very prominent quality in the field.
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