03 Feb What is the difference between sympathy and empathy?
According to our readings, what is the difference between sympathy and empathy? To respond to someone from the perspective of understanding where THEY are speaking from is a true art-form that takes time to develop. There is a series of techniques that are examples of empathetic response (repetition, paraphrasing, implied meaning, therapeutic conclusion, and cognitive reframing). Each of the initial five techniques are listed in increasing difficulty. Simply repeating a client’s statement does not require as much empathic understanding as interpreting what the client did not say directly. Now consider the therapeutic techniques of therapeutic confrontation (e.g., probing and challenging). How do these techniques relate to techniques designed to demonstrate empathy? Are the concepts of empathy and therapeutic confrontation mutually exclusive? If a therapist is demonstrating more sympathetic response toward a client than an empathetic response, how may that affect the therapist’s ability to effectively challenge the client?
