Lack of empathy is becoming an increasingly dangerous trait, as we see a rise in inflammatory rhetoric leading to ever more extreme societal ills.
Empathy is not just about seeing the world from someone else’s point of view but also about understanding their history, cultural background and life story. Empathy can also be seen as being kind to somebody even if they don’t deserve it.
Empathy is also a fundamental and necessary asset for managers in the workplace, as it leads to better employee morale and an overall improved work environment. On the other end of the spectrum, a lack of empathy can lead to increased stress levels, burnout, and disengagement from company culture.
In a world where the problems are complex and vast, it’s essential to think about empathy. Empathising with the people we serve is an important step to caring for them.
Empathy is a potent tool that all humans should use in a world with many problems. It helps us care for other people and ensure that we understand whatever they need of us. It’s necessary before we can begin to care for someone else and do what they might need from us.
How to Practice Empathy?
Be genuinely curious about others – Be aware of their thoughts and feelings.
Imagine yourself in other’s shoes – This helps us understand a problem or an emotion from the other person’s perspective.
Be an attentive listener – Be an active listener. It helps one enhance their ability to understand and communicate better.
Discover similarities – The purpose is to understand our common likes. Researches examine that why we prefer people who are similar to us.
Share who you are – Be genuine and authentic with the other person. It creates trust, safe space and happiness.
Validate other’s feelings – Emotional validation is to learn, understand and accept another person’s emotional experience.
What does empathy mean to you and when is it most important to use empathy?
We always look out for the people we love—parents, partners, children, friends, and siblings. We take care of them when they fall in and take them to the hospital if they get hurt. So why not look out for their mental health as well? Read the blog ahead to know how to do that.
Some signs to look out for are your loved one feeling sad or low. They could show confused thinking patterns, less concentration, and extreme mood changes; some could withdraw from social situations. Physical symptoms include low energy or always tiredness, sleeping issues, inability to deal with problems, excess alcohol and drug use, changed eating habits, violent behaviour and suicidal thinking.
If you consistently see these signs in a loved one, try to talk about them. Ask what has happened and what the issue is. To do a simple checkup, these are a few tips:
Look for the signs mentioned above. Observe their behaviour.
Ask basic questions like how they are feeling.
Listen to them carefully and patiently. Active listening is essential.
Do not compare the issue with yourself or others.
Offer encouragement and support.
Ask them if you can help in any way.
Have an open and honest discussion about your concerns.
Don’t judge them.
Bring this topic up only when you think it’s a good time to talk and when both of you are a bit relaxed and have time.
If you think they might harm themselves or are exhausting themselves with their thoughts, seek professional help.
If you observe any of the mentioned signs and feel concerned about your loved one’s mental health, then suggest therapy. Motivate that person to speak to a professional and seek help. Take care of your loved one.
People undergo therapy to bring about desired changes in themselves because therapy is designed in such a manner that it is able to achieve certain desired outcomes in the concerned patients. Achievement of these outcomes depends on various factors and one of them is the client’s therapeutic compliance. The client’s therapeutic compliance includes the patient’s compliance with medication, diet, exercise or lifestyle changes. Nevertheless, there are various factors that affect the client’s therapeutic compliance.
Factors Affecting the Client’s Therapeutic Compliance
There are factors that contribute to the client’s therapeutic non-compliance. Other similar terms that can be used in sync with therapeutic compliance can be adherence to therapy, concordance to therapy, and others.
Lack of consistency between an individual’s health-seeking or maintenance behaviour and recommendations given by healthcare professionals.
Compliance of patients to medicine rules in proximity to the time of clinic appointments.
Lack of consistency in a patient to continue the therapy till the issue gets resolved.
Lack of capacity to build trust in the therapist and discontinuing therapy too soon.
Demographic factors like age, gender education, marriage status, etc of the patient.
Set of acquired beliefs, values, motivation, and attitude in a client.
Physical comorbidities.
Substance abuse like tobacco smoking or alcohol consumption.
Method of administration.
Level of complexity in treatment.
The lasting period of treatment.
The side effects of medication (if any).
Amount of behavioural change required at the end of the therapy.
Absence of accessibility to the therapist.
Complications in filling the prescriptions.
Unsatisfied clinic visits or sessions.
Charges of sessions and income.
Nature of social support.
Lack of ability to take a break from work.
The severity of the problem.
Age
Elderly people fail to become compliant with the therapy because they are usually equipped with problems like vision, hearing, and memory that create difficulties for them to follow instructions.
On the other hand, middle-aged people give priority to other things in life than the prescription given by the therapist, due to commitment to work, they are not able to make the appointments.
Young children are dependent on their parents and guardians to attend sessions and disagreement or rebellious attitudes with them will affect their therapeutic compliance.
Set of Acquired Beliefs, Values, Motivation, and Attitude in a Client
While some patients think that their problem is untreatable, some have religious beliefs and some are worried about the declining effect of medication with time. The clients who lack the motivation to modify their behaviour and follow medications become non-compliant with time. Some clients, especially adolescents carry a negative attitude with themselves that they are not normal like their friends, leading to an absence of compliance in therapy.
The Lasting Period of Treatment
Acute illness comes with the client’s therapeutic compliance and vice versa. This is because the patient’s attitude of denying the therapy reduces with short duration of treatment.
Absence of Accessibility to The Therapist
Patients who give more importance to their work and other things, often become non-compliant. The reason for the same can be the travelling distance between his residence and the clinic. If the therapist is easily accessible to the patient, then he can regularly attend sessions and give desired outcomes.
Nature of Social Support
Social and emotional support from friends, family or healthcare providers contributes to the willingness of an individual to take therapy till results are attained. This is because social support helps to remove negative thoughts from the client’s mind and become motivated and encouraged to complete the therapy.
A Takeaway
The client’s therapeutic compliance is his behaviour towards taking medication, following diet alterations or implementing lifestyle changes. As mentioned above, there can be various types of client therapeutic non-compliance and factors contributing to the same. The main concern is that client’s therapeutic compliance and non-compliance play a major role in achieving the desired outcomes at the end of therapy.
Mental health concerns affect all age groups throughout the world. Many individuals who have never been to a therapist have curiosity and certainly have many questions like; Will he read my mind? What will I say when I go to a therapist? What if someone else comes to know about my problems? Will I have to talk about my childhood all the time?
What is Therapy?
Therapy is also known as ‘Psychotherapy’. It is a form of treatment that aims at relieving] emotional distress and mental problems. A trained professional who listens and guides the client to resolve his/her issues conducts therapy.
Art therapy, talk therapy, psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy are some of the different types of therapy.
Before a therapy session is booked, some therapists ask the client to fill up a ‘client intake form’ that has the basic background information of the client. It could also include details about how long the session will last, confidentiality and session fee.
The Process
Therapy sessions are professionally structured meetings between a trained therapist and a client.
The therapist will do some rapport-building exercises. This provides a supportive and comfortable environment where the client talks openly and the therapist actively listens to the client without any judgments or criticism and with a positive approach.
Therapists might take notes while listening to the client during the session.
The therapist will ask the client to share – traumatic experiences, feelings and incidents.
Initially, most therapies begin with ‘talk therapy’ where the therapist asks the client questions to understand their struggles and establish a therapy goal.
A therapy session is not like a magic wand. It does not solve the client’s problems but instead, the therapist helps and leads the client to possible solutions and coping strategies.
The counselling psychologist might refer you to a clinical psychologist for psychological tests or may refer the client to a psychiatrist if needed.
At the end of each session, the therapist might give you a mental health activity before the beginning of the next session. These activities help the therapist analyse the client’s progress.
Tips:-
Do seek professional help if needed.
Be honest with your therapist.
Avoid missing the scheduled sessions.
Complete the mental health activities assigned by the therapist.
Be patient.
Change your therapist if you feel their approach isn’t working for you.
