Can we train students to be empathetic?
Although it is true that there are certain skills associated with being empathetic and I can teach students to display (feign?) these, but is this conveying empathy? Is the “genuineness” we seek something that can be instilled or rather are we relegated to simply cultivate that which is present when a student arrives for training? I tend to lean towards the latter. As I question my ability to teach empathy, I have resigned myself to teach about it and include experiential exercises and assignments that tend to hone existing skills in an effort to expose the “empathy” within, like the gemologist cleaves the raw crystal to reveal the gemstone within.
Here are 2 sample exercises I use to accomplish this:

1. Attend open 12-step meetings…and not just one, but a minimum of 2 and preferably a number. By hearing recovering people share their stories…their experience, strength, and hope…students are able to understand addiction and recovery and see the “person who may have the diagnosis” as opposed to just the diagnosis that needs to be addressed when working with a person. A byproduct of this exercise is the opportunity to talk about “listening with the heart” rather than just “hearing with the ears.” And what is empathy if not understanding those with whom we work on a more affective level?

2. Change a personal behavior…in this exercise, students are instructed to “add, eliminate, and significantly change” a personal behavior and do start this within the first week of class and report on the experience at the end of the course. Students are told they can, “add 20-minutes of exercise 3X/wk, eliminate eating chocolate chip cookies, or shower in the evening rather than the morning”…in short “anything” is acceptable as a personal behavior change. The must keep a journal, they must report in the journal regularly, and they must write a detailed personal account of their experience that chronicles the entire experience.

a. This is often done in concert with classes/readings related to stages of readiness to change

b. Students almost always discover early on that what they thought was going to be an “easy ‘A’ grade” is at least a challenge if not a “pain in the a__,” but this then becomes a wonderful opportunity to discuss how change is almost never accomplished by changing only one thing…to add 20-minutes of exercise 3X/wk, e.g., I have to “dress to exercise,” go to the gym, shower after, schedule my day to “find the time, etc. NOTE: As students become more familiar with the stages of readiness to change, they often realize they are at an “action stage” of readiness regarding one aspect of the change challenge but at a contemplative if not pre-contemplative stage at other associated changes…this can do wonders as regards understanding, nay, empathizing with how difficult change can be for a person in counseling

c. Students learn to appreciate how difficult change can be to make, and if this challenging when they want to make the change in something “as simple/easy” as exercising or not eating chocolate chips cookies for example, then how challenging it must be to quit drinking/drugging/smoking, etc. And if I can better understand how difficult change is “first hand,” am I not better able to empathize with the “struggling changer in counseling” who says he/she wants to change but is sputtering and hesitating in working on identified changes in the treatment plan?

What do you think?
Robert