Analyzing Empathy Issues - Essay Example

I still managed to give her a more positive outlook on life. In the process of feeling and understanding what she was feeling, it was so much easier for me to help her go through the emotional and psychological pain she was at that point experiencing.

To be able to deliver a good empathic therapy, therapists should not only be honest but also show a sense of caring to the patient, personal warmth, sympathy, understanding, respect, acceptance, and trust (Martin, 8). Because of my sensitivity to others' feelings and quick thinking (Martin, 9), I strongly believe that I was able to make my friend feel better after spending some time talking about her pain.

Johari window is a self-awareness model that is widely used in the field of psychology. Specifically, the Johari window strongly suggests that the four sides of each person include the following scenarios: (1) what is known to self and others; (2) what is known to self but not people; (3) what is unknown to self but known to others; and (4) what is unknown to self and others. In our case, it seems that both of us are aware that she was at that point experiencing something bad. Back then, my ability to feel, speak, listen, and uncover her true feelings made her cry in front of me. The act of crying was a physical manifestation of what she was truly feeling about her husband’s unfaithfulness and infidelity. There is a strong possibility that my long-time friend has been hiding the emotional and psychological burden she was feeling for quite a long time.

Based on my one-on-one conversation with my friend, I would give it a score of “2” because I had simply responded to the expressed feelings of my friend. In response to my friend’s subjective response to what she was feeling back then, I was able to communicate back that I was aware of what she was feeling. In general, good and effective empathy therapy promotes greater independence on the part of the patient. To further improve my empathy, it is necessary for me to slowly learn how to be able to be more sensitive to hearing out or observing non-verbal cues such as crying and showing sad, deep sighs, or frowning faces among others. In real-life practice, it is not easy to learn to have more empathy for other people. Over time, continuous practice and experience can help therapists learn to practice empathic therapy with more finesse.