For therapists, empathy is incredibly important. After all, this gives you inputs to show empathy and build rapport with your client. After all, much therapy hinges on being able to get rapport or not .
Research also shows that therapists with empathy are often more successful and their clients also complete treatments and do not quit early[1].
In this blog article, learn more about empathy and its importance for therapists and for clients.
Empathy competence
Empathy is an important skill for therapists. When you have empathy, you can understand other people's feelings, thoughts and experiences and sympathize with the emotions that thoughts and experiences evoke.
It is important for therapists to build rapport with their client, and empathy is important for clients to build relationships with people in general.
Both professionally and privately, empathy is an important skill.
There is also a correlation between emotional intelligence and empathy[2].
Why is empathy important?
Empathy is important for therapists because it allows them to better help their clients. You can come up with better suggestions that really help your clients solve their problems.
So it plays an important role in communicating with your client. In doing so, you can then better understand your client's perspective. This also strengthens your bond with your client, making them even more docile.
This also makes your client feel safe, allowing them to express their problems and feelings even better. In addition, it helps the therapist assess non-verbal communication even better (source 1). Something that plays an important role in hypnotherapy.
How to foster empathy
Encouraging empathy among healthcare professionals is an important task. In Greece, for example, they use "diversity dolls" so that future caregivers have more empathy for people from minority groups.
In addition, journaling, using role-playing, art and game simulations are increasingly popular to stimulate empathy (source 1).
So you then try to see a situation from another person's perspective. Role-playing can be very helpful with this, because you then have to "empathize" to play the "role" well.
Another way to encourage empathy is to repeat what the other person is saying, but in your own words. This shows the other person that you are doing your best to understand him or her, and suppose you are wrong, the other person can make that clear to you. Which in turn makes your empathy better.
Empathic listening
Another way to encourage empathy is through empathetic listening. This begins with active listening. You listen to your client without interrupting or responding immediately. This immediately forces yourself to let go of preconceptions or the "I already know," but to form a thought about the information only after you have all the information.
Then repeat what the other person has said in their own words.
You also try to feel your client's feelings and emotions while you are listening. You can show this by indicating that you understand how the other person feels and how you would feel in a similar situation.
In the process, your reflection is also supportive. Your body language is supportive, with nods, smiles and leaning forward. In doing so, you can also say things like "That sounds like a challenge."
Empathic listening is very important as a therapist and especially as a hypnotherapist, as people often use it as a "last resort." Previous experiences of misunderstanding and not feeling heard can cause them to already be more skeptical than necessary.
By correctly paraphrasing their words and by remembering details and doing something with them, you will make your client feel heard.
This supports the trust your client has in you as a therapist, which only benefits treatment[3].
Another part of empathic listening is that you also ask questions, such as in response to your client's body language. This helps clients resolve conflicting goals and get more clarity about their thoughts. As a result, emotional problems are resolved[4].
Of course, you may get an idea very quickly from someone's story, or the solution may feel very simple to you, and then it can be hard to keep your mouth shut. Mindfulness, being with your thoughts in the here-and-now, helps you to let your client talk all the way out and to keep thoughts of all kinds of solutions in your mental waiting room for a while longer.
What's also good to keep in mind is that ultimately your client really does have to solve his or her own problems. As a hypnotherapist, you remain a professional and you cannot become friends with all your clients. So as long as the empathy is there to help your client move forward, you don't have to worry about developing too close a relationship with your client by being empathetic.
This way, you also avoid tangling with empathy yourself. Showing empathy is good, but you are not the solution, that is the client himself.
In the HIN's training, you will also receive instruction on how to build a professional relationship with your clients over the course of therapy.
Empathize with your client
In addition to needing empathy as a hypnotherapist to best help your clients, your client may also need to improve his or her empathy.
In fact, this is sometimes needed during regression or other techniques. The fun part is that there is also a technique where you turn the tables for a while. You as hypnotherapist play the client and the client plays for therapist.
This has the following benefits:
- It improves your client's motivation.
- It improves the report.
- It improves hypnotizability and reduces resistance.
- It gives you insights about your client.
- It gives the client a "role model" in dealing with feelings, changes in awareness and self-control.
- It improves your client's self-confidence and ego.
- It improves your client's self-control skills[5].
Empathy during regression
The regression technique is one of the most important techniques for a hypnotherapist. With this technique, people are often taken back to their childhood, to a time when a problem arose.
It often happens that family or classmates were present at that moment and then you start helping the inner child. In that case, a conversation often takes place between the inner child and the other person who was present during that moment.
When coaching someone with this, it is also quite common to have your client empathize with the other person. You then give them the suggestion that they are their mother, for example, and what the mother would actually want to say to the inner child.
This can be difficult for clients, especially if there is trauma, to then empathize with the mother. This is why hypnosis is a helpful state, because then you can also give them suggestions that improve empathy, such as:
"Your mother loves you, so somewhere there is a good intention behind it. What would that be?"
"Your mother is only human too and people make mistakes, what would she say about this mistake if she loves you?"
This type of suggestion can break through people's resistance and allow them to freely empathize with the other person's situation, who was there at the time.
This can create understanding and that is often the first step to forgiveness that allows them to put it behind them.
This understanding does not mean that what the other person did is "right," but understanding can provide closure. Allowing people to move on again without difficulty.
Working with empathy
Every therapist works with empathy, and so it is with hypnotherapists. Want to learn more about how empathy and hypnotherapy work?
Then come to the free online master class for an introduction.
Or register directly for one of our events or trainings. Training courses are available both in class and live online. There is plenty of assistance for 1-on-1 attention from the best hypnosis professionals.
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