Empathic Reflection

I choose to complete a chapter review of chapter 6 called the Pursuit of Empathic Understanding in the textbook Choices interviewing and counseling skills for Canadian written by Bob Shebib pages 186 to 216. I have broken the structure of my chapter review into separate headings for each bolded topic within the chapter. I choose the chapter on empathy as I feel it is a complex skill to understand as a counselor or as an individual. Furthermore, I choose the chapter as I believe I have a fdifficulity understanding empathy and wanted further revision of the skill to promote more insight.

Emotions

The chapter began by describing human emotions and the significance in life that emotions hold. “Emotions define and shape the course of our lives.

Within the instance I had flash backs of experiences and memories that once created emotions of joy, harmony, and content that allowed me to feel alive (i.e. birth of my child, graduating college while holding my baby on stage, buying my first home) while others created fear, hate, and sorrow to the point of longing for death to end the emotional connect streaming through me and save me from them (i.e. being raped by your first love/partner and father of your child, being betrayed and used by the only other partner you choose to try and trust after the first). The author continued to further express the impact of emotions by sharing “some that are frightening to acknowledge are destined to remain forever hidden, perhaps from even ourselves”. I once again felt understood by the author. Feelings as thou the author was talking to many individuals as an audience who would be able to relate. I thought within social services often individuals requiring services have been through those emotions and situations which they cannot face. Those emotions which have partially lead them in the path they are on or had taken. Emotions are talked about having strong physiological responses that can hinder our health and

Each physical response given on page 187 toward anger, fear, happiness, love, surprise, and sadness were useful, meaningful, and had a coping purpose which I was not aware of before but could now draw and understand the connection. The author touched on the reasoning to why it may be easier, safer, best suited, or have benefits for a counselor to support an individual through identifying, exploring and managing their emotions compared to that of a friend of family if one has struggled to cope with emotions on their own. Describing that the empathic understanding provided by counseling is a doorway into deeper communication and insight compared to that of everyday communication. I strongly agree with this and have personally felt so during receiving counseling and the therapeutic rapport I had received. I was really fond of how Presbury, Echterling, and McKee (2000) breaking down emotional intelligence into two categories (1. Skills to understanding oneself: 2. Skills to understanding others). It made clear how understanding and connecting with