EMPATHY

The counseling disposition of empathy, I believe, is truly the beating  heart of the counseling dispositions; with that being said it is through my reflection as a graduate level counseling student that I have come to realize and accept that embodying this disposition can only actually happen from a solidified foundation in all of the other dispositions listed previously.

It is through my reflections that I have come to realize that while I can seemingly very easily connect and find empathy for my clients, their struggles, and their unique experiences that brought them to my couch; it is also equally imperative that we as counselors, myself especially can grow to have empathy for ourselves.

It is through doing my own work, and seeking support not only from just my supervisors and mentors, but also re-embarking on my own therapeutic journey, that I can learn and go on to give myself the necessary and essential gift of empathy and grace for myself as it applies to giving myself permission to be worthy of grace, to fail, to make mistakes, and to grow and flourish.

Within this page you will see an artifact of an assignment that I had completed within my counseling program that depicts Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development. The six stages of moral development details Kohlberg’s theory of how individuals develop their own unique sense of morality and how that goes on to influence the empathy we have for others, and ourselves; depending on what we may have experienced it can be both a foundation of strength or a foundation for dysfunction, but nonetheless, I will continue my own personal therapeutic journey, and lean on my love ones that make me feel safe to fully and completely show up as myself, and allows me to honor myself.