Empathy in the Caring Professions
by Marguerite Ham Balancing Empathy and Burnout I recently read an interesting article in Quartz about the possibility that empathy could cause exhaustion and burnout. This can happen to anyone, but particularly to people in professions which involve caring for people in distress: the ill, the bereaved, the mentally ill, or people in a life crisis. There are three different types of empathy. All of them are part of emotional intelligence: Cognitive empathy means you intellectually understand other peoples’ persepectives and what language would be most effective in communicating with them. Emotional empathy is feeling what the other person feels — which can, in some cases, be too much for us to bear. Empathic concern makes us want to help people in need. We need to look out for “empathy distress,” which happens when we absorb too much of the negative emotions of others. This is widespread in today’s COVID-19 pandemic, even in non-caring professions. Imagine how easy it is for someone in a caring profession, like funeral service or medicine, to slip into this condition! Self-care for empathy distress You can help yourself avoid empathy distress with a good self-care regimen and exercising the self-management part of emotional intelligence. …
