The role of Empathy in Physiotherapy!

Empathy is a complex word that is often misused and often times misunderstood.  I thought I understood empathy and was practicing it every time I had a patient, but after my interaction with the learning resource this week I realized that there is more to empathy than putting yourself in the place of another person, or telling someone that I do understand how you feel because it is impossible to as feeling is subjective.

I am not much of a writer so I will borrow this expression on empathy

“Be someone else, It takes great empathy to create a good experience. To create relevant experiences, you have to forget everything you know and design for others. Align with the expected patience , level of interest, and depth of knowledge of your users. Talk in the users language.” Niko Nyman

This is what I would call empathy. Letting go of ourselves and putting our self in the place of the patient and trying to feel and understand what the patient is going through. By bringing our selves to the level of the patient we will be able to form that connection that will allow empathy to take place. I know that this is scary as it puts one in a state of vulnerability and no one likes to feel vulnerable but this is the only way to connect with our patients.

We don’t deal with customers or clients let alone users but we deal with patients that are vulnerable and who have put all their trust and confidence in us. For the success of our treatment and career  we need to develop empathy as it has been illustrated that the art of healing is in part made up of a therapeutic use of oneself or a therapeutic presence for patients. This presence is more than knowledge and skill alone, it is also composed of compassionate understanding of a patient and a communication that the therapist is worthy of the trust that the patient has bestowed……….empathy enhances the process of healing (Davis, 1990). We can not do away with empathy. It has a major role to play in our discipline. We can never be effective without empathy.

But the question that may arise is, how can one maintain their sanity at the end of the day if they are sharing the burden of 10 patients in a day? I think this is where the keeping of professional distance comes to play. We need to learn to separate us from the problems of our patients or avoid becoming emotionally attached to our patients because this may prevent us from making objective decisions, thereby leading to emotional burnout at the end of the day.

Before I close I would like to leave you with this beautiful poem about empathy

Can I see another’s woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another’s grief,
And not seek for kind relief?

Can I see a falling tear,
And not feel my sorrow’s share?
Can a father see his child
Weep, nor be with sorrow filled?

Can a mother sit and hear
An infant groan, an infant fear?
No, no! never can it be!
Never, never can it be!

William Blake