Egan's Use Of Empathy

Egan (1994, pp. 108-21) discusses the use of empathy as a tool for assisting the worker to respond with genuine understanding. Empathy is demonstrated when Liam is present “physically and psychologically”. He is very attentive through the conversation and seems interested. He resists his own biases and judgments and assessing both verbal and non-verbal messages. Liam presents as being very cool and flowing with Rosemary’s story. He doesn’t judge that she is 60 and needs to start dating. Egan also discusses the use of empathy as a tool for assisting the worker to respond with genuine understanding. Liam is agreeing with Rosemary’s story trying to show that he understands what she has going on with her life.
There is use of non-verbal communication

As cited in cited in Cournoyer, 2008, p. 8, the social worker actively seeks to involve significant persons in the client’s life in the helping process. He welcomes Rosemary and clearly introduces himself as the social worker. He also tells her to go ahead and say something about herself too and her agenda for the session. He is also welcoming, warm, genuine, accommodative, sincere and shows empathy. He commented on her appearance too saying that she looks younger than her age. There is also respect and boundaries shown through the conversation.
Interviewing skills are also conveyed here. Cournoyer (2008, pp. 145-148) states that active listening combines the talking and listening skills in such a way that others feel understood and encouraged to express themselves further .Because this is his first consultation with the client, he shows initial interview skills too. He describes his role as a social worker and his purpose of being there. He describes the confidentiality terms and its limitations; the information presented is only going to be shared only if harm to Rosemary or others is

It also allows the social worker to move forward. He asks open ended questions like “so how is your social life?” It allows Rosemary to give more details and express her story or concerns even further. He also uses probes like when he makes a statement, “I presume that is different from what you used to do”. He also asks direct questions e.g. when he asked, “how is your social life?” Although he mostly asks open-ended questions, he also uses close-ended questions. Close ended questions should be avoided because it kills the conversation. All these help Rosemary to: give details of her past happenings, tell her stories, engage as fully as possible in the dialogue, be accommodative and say more, clarify anything that was not clear enough, make decisions, present proposals, be specific, be solid, be clear, be concise, provide a conclusion and challenge how she thinks and behaves. He also has skills of seeking clarification. He asks, “I presume this is so different from your time?” and also “did you say you friend introduced you to this?” According to Compton, B. 1989 seeking clarification is very important in letting the client know that we are attentive and ready to