empathy psychotherapy

Empathy, Brain Science, Stress Reduction – the Video!

This is your mind on neuroscience – mirror neurons: do they exist, and if not, what about it?
Sperry on the split brain: the information is in the system: how to get at it
The neuroscience of trauma – and how empathy gives us access to it
MRI research: as when Galileo looked through the telescope, a whole new world opens

Top 10 Empathy Trends in 2021

It’s gettin’ crowded under the bus. We confront the paradox of “embracing” our socially distanced neighbor. There is something about humans that makes us want to breathe on one another. Empathy? There is nothing that says an empathy trend has to be positive – but don’t try and hold your breath. Expanding neighborliness is the ultimate empathy trend.

A Rumor of Empathy in the History of Psychiatry: A Review

Shorter narrates from the point of view of the practicing psychiatrist. The thesis is that psychiatry has struggled to differentiate itself from neurology (and brain science), psychoanalysis (and psychotherapy), finally securing for itself the secure path of a respectable scientific enterprise in the second psychopharmacological revolution, featuring Prozac (floxatine) along with a willingness to make use of some version of “the rapport,” talking with patients as human beings with complex lives and emotions.

Update: What to look for in selecting a psychotherapist

Three criteria are front and center in selecting a psychotherapist: empathy, schedule, and cost. I might say “empathy, empathy, and empathy,” but cost and schedule are important too. Absent a warm empathic, gracious and generous listening, many people find that psychotherapy is indistinguishable from going to the dentist – i.e., painful. When delivered in a context of empathy, psychotherapy can make a difference in getting unstuck, eliminating or reducing emotional upset, and expanding possibilities for personal growth. My commitment is to deliver empathy.