Imagination: An Essential Dimension of a Counselor's Empathy

Abstract

As a component of an integral model of empathy, a counselor's imaginative faculty contributes to empathically understanding a diverse range of clients. Discussion of the literature and the therapeutic implications of imagination in counseling, including a case study, provide a humanistic perspective for using the counselor's imaginative potential.

Holding the Tension of Opposites: Counselors’ Experiences of the Therapeutic Internalization Process

“…As humanists, we place great value in the interpersonal nature of counseling, wherein both counselor and client bring their personhood to the therapeutic encounter. Yet, counselors hold primary responsibility for the maintenance of clear interpersonal boundaries between client and counselor throughout the counseling process (Clark & Simpson, ; Rogers, ). Clearly, ethical and effective treatment rests on counselors’ ability to pay careful attention to the subtle balance between closeness to and departure from their clients.…”

Exploring Cognitive Empathy: Further Validation of the Empathic Counselor Response Scale and Application to Practice

“…It is a core component of humanistic counseling in that accurate and sustained empathic connection can enhance client experiences of counseling while also enabling counselors to conceptualize and respond to the unique realities and subjective experiences of each client (Dollarhide & Oliver, 2014; Scholl, 2008; Scholl et al, 2014). Empathic perspective taking can also facilitate understanding across cultures, enabling counselors to acknowledge diverse identities and experiences (Clark & Simpson, 2003). The most common conceptualizations of empathy include cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, although it is unclear how these constructs interact for optimal benefit in the therapeutic process (Segal et al, 2017).…”

Promoting Cognitive Complexity in Counselor Education: Constructivist and Phenomenological Practices

“…Coplan () set forth a narrow conceptualization of empathy as “a process through which an observer simulates another's situated psychological states, while maintaining clear self‐other differentiation” (p. 58) that can be used to develop an integrative phenomenological training method. Emotional contagion and perspective taking are standard distinctions in the counseling literature (Clark & Simpson, ). Emotional contagion is considered a preanalytical experience “triggered by direct sensory engagement with another person expressing an emotion” (Coplan, , p. 46).…”