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Listening to Patients: Primary Empathy Skills

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Facilitating the Genetic Counseling Process

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Abstract

Empathy is a multistage, interpersonal process involving the vicarious experiencing of another person’s feelings and situation and an ability to communicate one’s understanding of another’s feelings and experience. This chapter defines primary empathy and the functions it serves in genetic counseling (e.g., building rapport and trust, problem exploration), and it distinguishes among different types of primary empathy responses ranging from minimal encouragers to reflections of content and feelings. Concrete examples of genetic counselor primary empathy, including cultural empathy, are provided. Common empathy challenges are identified, and specific strategies are described for increasing empathic engagement with patients. A series of experiential activities and written exercises allow students to strengthen their empathic ability and practice their empathic communication in various genetic counseling situations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Resource: Fisher (1996).

  2. 2.

    Adapted from Danish et al. (1980).

  3. 3.

    Adapted from Slendokova (2005) and from research by Siemińska et al. (2002) involving an intervention to develop sensitivity to health-care patients.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Patricia McCarthy Veach Ph.D., L.P.

  2. Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Bonnie S. LeRoy M.S., C.G.C., L.G.C.

  3. Genetic Counseling Program, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, USA

    Nancy P. Callanan M.S., C.G.C.

Authors
  1. Patricia McCarthy Veach Ph.D., L.P.
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  2. Bonnie S. LeRoy M.S., C.G.C., L.G.C.
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  3. Nancy P. Callanan M.S., C.G.C.
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McCarthy Veach, P., LeRoy, B.S., Callanan, N.P. (2018). Listening to Patients: Primary Empathy Skills. In: Facilitating the Genetic Counseling Process. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74799-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74799-6_4

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