Psychological type and conceptions of empathy in experienced counsellors: qualitative results

Abstract

Different conceptions of empathy appear to be explained by psychological type theory. For example, counsellors who prefer 'thinking' to 'feeling' and 'judging' to 'perceiving' have an active conception and reported practice while feeling and perceiving types refer to a passive approach. This paper reports qualitative data on conceptions of empathy in counsellors and relates them to psychological type. Four categories and 30 themes were identified. The categories were: definitions of empathy; operationalizing empathy; what influences empathy; and empathic communication. Twenty of the themes were related to the psychological types of the participants. Implications of these findings for the concept of empathy, for counsellor education and training, and for research are briefly discussed.