How Healthcare Professionals Cultivate Compassion — Even When Empathy Seems Elusive
When I was in middle school, we read “All Quiet on the Western Front,” the story of a German soldier’s horrific experiences during World War I. As a 12-year-old, steeped in movies about the Second World War, I viewed all German soldiers as “bad people.” This book challenged my prejudices, as I realized the protagonist was just another powerless adolescent, drafted into a pointless war and forced to experience the carnage and devastation no one should have to endure. This new awareness — this empathy for someone who previously embodied a negative stereotype — opened my eyes and challenged my naïve view of the world.What happens, though, when those most entrusted with understanding us — our medical and mental health professionals — remain blinded by their own biases?Healthcare professionals choose their careers with a desire to help others. But they are people, too. They have bad days. They have personal lives that can sideline them. They encounter difficult situations on the job that try their patience. And they may hold beliefs and values that differ from some of those they treat. Yet unlike people in many other careers, they are expected to remain empathetic, regardless of what awaits them in the treatment room. Not an easy task.As a psychologist, I am in the empathy business. We psychotherapists sit with patients as they share their lived experiences, and routinely engage our ability to empathize with their struggles. And we enlist their empathy as well. We ask them to cultivate compassion for their own difficulties and even feel empathy for those who have hurt them. When they realize that their abusive parent, or estranged sister, or philandering ex-spouse also experienced suffering, they have a better chance of moving past their own entrenched cycles of misery. And along the way, psychotherapy teaches them that the capacity for insight into motives, experiences, and hardships (both theirs and others) provides a valuable lifelong tool.
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