Running head: ENGAGEMENT CONCEPT: EMPATHY

Engagement Concept: Empathy

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Engagement Concept: Empathy
Introduction
When a person perceives, understands, experiences and responds to other peoples
emotional state and ideas, it is said that such a person is empathetic. Empathy is an essential
condition in the establishment of relationships in the society. Being able to put one in the shoes
of others and take steps to experience the challenges that they face can prove to be the most
worthwhile effort undertaken in trying to understand what other people go through. While it is
possible to understand the feelings of other people, a true empathic skill takes into perspective
the capacity for an emotional attachment (Birkenmaier et al., 2014). Empathy has a sense of
incorporation of a clients inner perspectives but at the same time retaining personal emotions in
a bid to enhance decision making. This illustrates that though a social worker strives to travel
through a clients world, he or she does not lose his or her own objectivity. Empathy has also
been described as vicarious introspection to mean that a social worker penetrates the inner world
of the clients and at the same time reflects on the feelings invoked. Empathy has also been
established as an essential ingredient and dispositional trait in the facilitation of communication
skills. The two basic components associated with empathy include affective matching and
cognitive component that is concerned with the ability to adopt other peoples perspective.
Summary and Application
Affective and cognitive are the two primary domains that enhance understanding of
empathy in social work practice. The two domains lead to behavioral expressions. Affective
includes the constructs of care to the target and congruence. Professional care is a specific form
of interpersonal communication whereby one party applies the principles of a specific set of
knowledge and skills; for example counseling with a goal of improving human condition.

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Congruence was a dimension proposed by Rogers and connotes being open, honest and non
judgmental in helping a person. The cognitive dimension takes into perspective such factors as
flexibility in decision making and intellectuality, openness in understanding and taking the
perspectives of other people. Cognition also inculcates the ability to take another point of view
regardless of the initial perception. It is paramount for a social worker to try and interpret and
understand another persons mental and emotional state if a fruitful conclusion was to be attained
in the long run. Altruism and therapeutic relationships are some of the core behavioral
manifestations of empathy involving interpersonal motivations and actions. Altruism denotes
motivation to benefit others in situations where the goal is to motivate others without any
expectation to receive rewards (Matziari et al., 2016).
Therapeutic relationship connotes a medium that facilitates the exploration of different
issues, cements hope and nurtures behaviors. Further, therapeutic relationship is a channel
through which intervention strategies are coined. It is argued that the nature and quality of
therapeutic relationships impacts the resultant outcomes and the experience of clients in a social
setup. Similarly a productive and helping alliance aligns to situations where helpers accept,
become non-judgmental, supportive and empathic. Empathy stands out as an essential factor in
building trust and developing a relationship that will stand the test of time. Reliable and effective
social work practice lies on the premise of interpersonal and empathic skills of the practitioners
(Zibenberg & Kupermintz, 2016). Thus, empathy is central in regard to practice and personality
of a therapist. Both actors in a relationship get to benefit in the event that they adopt empathy.
Self awareness is an essential component in an empathic experience as one becomes
aware of other peoples feelings and state of emotion in relation to his or her own emotional
state. There are two main perspectives associated with the aspect of self awareness and its

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connection to empathic experience. The first factor takes into consideration empathy as a result
of identification that blurs the difference between self and others. It is important to note that
empathy goes beyond just absorption of other peoples emotions and feelings as it requires
congruence to different situations ("The power of empathy: Helen Riess at TEDxMiddlebury",
2016). The second factor is the consideration of empathy to specific results from a self point of
view and allowing one to recognize particular uniqueness that accrue. A good social worker with
an empathic predisposition will always strive to get to a clients inner world while maintaining
emotional distance (Gerdes & Segal, 2011). An emotional distance in an empathic relationship is
significant in ensuring that there is preservation of ones well being and prevention of fatigue.
A good example two illustrate an empathic relationship can be given by an hypothetical
situation involving two people; person X and person Y. Person X is a social worker while person
Y is a client. In their relationship, X is trying to aid Y in conquering her personal fears that
emanate from her feeling disregarded by the family members. In this case X tries immensely to
fit herself in the shoes of Y in order to ensure that she understands exactly what Y feels and
devise the best strategy to aid her transformation. X must commence by listening keenly and
following the utterances of Y. At some point X should paraphrase what the client is saying by
quoting the main points. Care and compassion are essential in the relationship, X must exhibit
care by ensuring that her facial expression and posture consummate with what Y is saying. At the
same time, she must understand the feelings of the client and treat her as a whole person and by
so doing trust and genuineness will be cemented between the two. A good real life example of an
empathic relationship is exhibited when a mother takes her child for a vaccination. In some
situations if not in all situations it is possible to see mothers wince the moment the child is
injected. On occasions when the child is crying out of pain some mothers tend to cry as well,

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however, the mother has to allow the vaccination to take place because it is necessary and vital to
the growth and development of the baby. The relationship between mothers can be depicted as an
empathic relationship owing to the emotional attachment and emotional distance that accrues.
Conclusion
Social engagement is not worthwhile if there is no empathic relationship. At the same
time, it is true to say that a society without empathy is not livable. What makes the world worth
and livable is the extent of emotional attachment that people exhibit (Gerdes & Segal, 2011).
Regardless of race, color, religion or age it is common to see a person tend to connect with
another in the event of pain or joy. For example in a situation where a person wins an award,
both the person and the audience can shed tears of joy although in a normal setup it is only the
primary winner who is supposed to react, but this is not the case because the audience tends to
establish an empathic relationship with the award winner. Thus, empathic relationships are
critical in social engagement. When working with people the first step is always to try and get
their perspective without jumping into conclusions (Grant, 2013). Early conclusions tend to
impair the real feelings of the associated persons. The second step is to connect emotionally with
the involved persons while maintaining personal judgment and emotional distance. It is always
important to follow up on the conversations and allow moments of silence. Moreover, facial
expressions and posture must coincide with the emotions of the associated people in order to
spur development of trust and create room for genuineness and open mindedness.

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References
Birkenmaier, J., Berg-Weger, M., & Dewees, M. (2014). The Practice of Generalist Social Work.
Gerdes, K. & Segal, E. (2011). Importance of Empathy for Social Work Practice: Integrating
New Science. Social Work, 56(2), 141-148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sw/56.2.141
Grant, L. (2013). Hearts and Minds: Aspects of Empathy and Wellbeing in Social Work
Students. Social Work Education, 33(3), 338-352.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2013.805191
Matziari, A., Montgomery, A., Georganta, K., & Doulougeri, K. (2016). The Relationship
between Organizational Practices and Values with Burnout and Engagement. Current
Psychology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-016-9413-7
The power of empathy: Helen Riess at TEDxMiddlebury. (2016). YouTube. Retrieved 8
November 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baHrcC8B4WM
Zibenberg, A. & Kupermintz, H. (2016). Personal Values and Intergroup Empathy. Journal of
Human Values, 22(3), 180-193. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0971685816650584