Empathy in cognitive behavioral therapy and supervision

Rogers found empathic reflection useful and around it constructed his notions of individuation. Active listening requires therapists to paraphrase what the client has just said, using the emotional tone in which it was said. Empathic reflections are intended to confirm the client ' s experience by helping him or her know more precisely what it is and to make it more acceptable. In recent years social neuroscience made considerable progress in revealing the mechanisms that enable a person to feel what another is feeling. During empathic reaction the therapist is intervening not only in a psychological manner to connect, heal, and share burden but also in a neurobiological level. Shared neural representations can play a main role in understanding of mental states of other person. Cognitive behavior therapists examine the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to a wide range of situations (including reactions to the therapist) and relevant childhood experiences to understand the underlying core beliefs and conditional assumptions of each client. Empathy helps them to understand both emotional reactions and the meanings of experience for the client and helps them also to understand how these elements are interconnected in concrete client. Understanding of transference and countertransference is crucial to effective listening. Empathy could help to recognize and understand transference and countertransference and for their appropriate using during the therapy. Empathic ability may be part of sensitivity to one ' s own feelings, including countertransference feelings, which in turn ought to prevent the acting out of countertransference.