Memoirs of A Healer/Clinical Social Worker: Autobiography of Bruce Whealton

Chapter 34: Empathy, Education, and Treatment Techniques

[Disclaimer: I have used aliases to protect the confidentiality and identity of clients or patients. No other names have been changed.]

One of the great experiences I had as a therapist, including during my role at Brynn Marr Psychiatric Hospital, was supervising an intern. I mean imagine the situation and everything that has come before in my life. I started college as someone lacking social skills and lacking communication skills. Yet here I was working in the field successfully where those specific skills are required, and I am supervising someone else who is looking to me for guidance.

This is a testament to the passion and dedication that I had. I felt a sense of amazement at these many accomplishments and my success. Not only did patients look to me for guidance, insight, treatment, and direction but I had a student in the same field as me looking to me for education, guidance, and insights in a manner not so different than the way I looked to Chris Hauge, my mentor.

Granted Chris had many more years of experience than I did, but this was still amazing. Mary was her name. She could have asked to work under the supervision of my colleague, Leslie, the other therapist on the unit but she observed us both and asked to work with me.

There wasn't anything wrong with Leslie. The situation described in the last chapter about how a hostile environment existed for Victoria was not something Leslie had done herself.

Mary sat in on group sessions, met with new patients to gather information for the intake assessments, and sat in on individual therapy sessions with patients sometimes. This was helpful because I was finding that occasionally some patients would ask me to be their therapist instead of Leslie - I can't say that happened many times, but occasionally someone asked to switch.

I do not know why anyone was asking for me as their therapist.

For what it's worth, and to me, it was worth a lot, no one had asked to switch therapists to work with Leslie instead of working with me. I may have had greater eagerness because I was new, but I've never lost that passion for trying to be the best I can be... to earn the respect and admiration of those I was serving.

As I was saying in the last chapter, I did think that empathy is a quality that must be demonstrated. You can't just tell yourself that you are doing a good job and that you care about the welfare of others. You have to observe how people respond to you.

So, did the patients continue to meet with me after an initial session? Yes. I mean, if you didn't accomplish anything with the patient, why would they return and/or ask to see you whenever they can? I could tell as I walked around the unit that people looked up and to me for my attention.

Consider this, some people might be there involuntarily and waiting to get out as soon as possible. So, they would be going to group sessions to demonstrate that they are participating and to earn points with the staff who would decide they are ready to be discharged as soon as possible.

In addition, while there are differences in the roles and there are boundary issues that differentiate patients and staff, there are still ways in which those boundaries and differences do not have to be so great that a patient doesn't feel comfortable wanting to interact with you and seek your help.

Empathy as a Treatment Technique

Carl Rogers was a psychologist who pioneered the humanistic approach to psychology or psychotherapy which was also called client-centered therapy. He is known for his ideas about unconditional positive regard that a therapist should convey to a client or patient. This to me seemed like a basis for all other techniques.

In a way, empathy develops by conveying the idea that the person is accepted and acceptable as they are and not based on some conditions about what they must be.