Developing pre-requisites for empathy: increasing awareness of self, the body and the perspectives of others

ABSTRACT

Empathy is an important affective attribute for graduates entering future practice with diverse populations. Self- and bodily awareness and the ability to take others’ perspectives are essential for developing, maintaining and encouraging the cognitive, affective and motivational elements of empathy. This paper presents a thematic analysis of students’ summative reflections on body-focused wellness activity participation, which indicates increased self- and bodily awareness and developing ability to take on the perspectives of others. Prolonged engagement with authentic activities that focus attention on shared bodily aspects of life and encourage self-direction appears to be central for developing awareness and the ability to take on others’ perspectives. For some students, perspective-taking may produce recognition of disempowerment and the need for power reciprocity in future professional relationships, an essential element of practising empathy.

KEYWORDS:

• Bodily awareness
• empathy
• self-awareness
• perspective-taking
• reflection

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the participants’ generosity in allowing assessed material to be used for the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.