Understanding Difference Diversity to Develop Empathy

Understanding difference of opinion Diversity to Develop EmpathyPhil Makins13th celestial latitude 2016 Session 8The topic of discussion today was Understanding Difference Diversity to Develop Empathic Understanding. We explored why an judgment of difference and form was important when using counselling skills in helping roles. We then went on to broaden that understanding and consider difference and diversity within our throw personal relationships and in the wider social context to understand how this impacts on counselling.The understanding difference and diversity is an important part of counselling training is to blot that we are non all the same, everybody on the planet is a curious individual, even identical twins will bemuse many differences in the way they feel and respond to different things. Whilst researching this topic I have come to realise that it is more complex than I first persuasion and goes far beyond the common diversity issues of gender, race, religi on, and disability. Diversity runs much deeper than this and likewise comprises diversity of personalities, experiences, beliefs, and reactions to vitrines. It is important to recognise such diversity if empathic understanding is to be provided to clients, except what is empathic understanding? And why is it so undeniable?Empathic Understanding is unity of the three core conditions of Person-Centred Counselling, the other twain being Unconditional Positive Regard and Congruence. To be empathic has been exposit as seeing the world through the eyes of some other person or walking in another persons shoes. It means that the counsellor accurately understands the clients thoughts, feelings, and meanings from the clients proclaim perspective. When the counsellor perceives what the world is like from the clients point of view, it demonstrates not just that that view has value, but also that the client is being accepted. Could I fork out empathic understanding to a person or grou p whom I harbour stereotypical views or hurt almost? I enquiry that I could be truly empathic in that situation so I would either change my mindset and try to call back the mischief or take advice from my clinical supervisor. Further to this, empathy has often been confused with understanding but they are very different. Empathy is nighthing that is done with someone whereas sympathy is a reaction to someone. Sympathy suggests feeling sorry for someone and that in unfreeze suggests some sort of power imbalance, i.e. the person sympathising is in a greater position of power. Empathy is about being on an equal footing by entering into the clients world to try and understand and also communicating with individually other to clarify and confirm that understanding.Without recognising diversity, it would be all too lenient to impose our accept thoughts and feelings onto a client, especially if the client is experiencing something we have experience as It is human nature to loo k for similarities in other plurality and to identify with them. As counsellors, therefore, the challenge comes in identifying difference and being ok with it working with it, rather than being threatened by it. The counsellor who bevel do this is merely placing more conditions of worth onto the client, which is incompatible with another one of the Core Conditions mentioned, namely, Unconditional Positive Regard.I started to take about my own beliefs and prejudices, do I have any prejudices? Surely not, I am a trainee counsellor and I work in a rely But whenever I hear a Birmingham accent Im afraid I do think that the person talking moldiness be stupid. When I hear a Liverpool accent I think of youths, hoodies and joyriding. A quick bit of internet research shows that the three close disliked accents in the United Kingdom are Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow in that instal with Birmingham being the most disliked. I know that for me to think all sight from Birmingham are stu pid and all youths from Liverpool are criminals is incorrect and wrong but our prejudices are deeply ingrained in us and difficult to remove as they have probably been instilled in us over a period of many years, possibly (probably) since childhood.So, how do we start to work towards removing our own prejudices? I should imagine one good way would be to join on your exposure to or contact with those who belong to the groups toward which you have learned some prejudicial stereotypes. Misconceptions remain effective only when you avoid contact with those about whom you have misconceptions but, unfortunately, I do not know anyone from Birmingham or Liverpool. However, whenever I have prejudicial thoughts now I try and examine these thoughts and take apart why I am thinking them. I normally father that there is no real reason for my generalisation or prejudice and try and tell myself to remove the prejudicial feelings. If I keep reinforcing this I am sure it will start to work.We all experience things in a different way. A situation that could upset or torment me could be viewed completely differently by another person. An example of this could be when theres a traffic accident and the police ask for witnesses to come antecedent and describe what happened. They like to have as many witness statements as possible so that they can build up enough enjoin to give them a broader, more realistic version of events. In a traffic accident, there will be many different perspectives on what happened. The driver of one car will have one view, another driver or a passenger will have however another view. Each onlooker who witnessed the accident will have a slightly different perspective, depending on where they were, how far away they were, how good a view they had, what else was going on, how much danger they felt they were in, how the accident touch them, what the accident means to them etc.Its the same principle with everything each situation, event or conversation means something different to all those involved, and also to those not involved. We give different meanings, according to our belief systems, and how we are affected by the event.