"Empathy is rarely taught in graduate or professional schools, but empathy remains at the heart of therapeutic life. Professional training should incorporate a more systematic and conscious approach to  promoting the student's natural empathy.  At all levels of professional development, empathy should be woven into the other important facets of pscyhotherapy and human services." Peter R. Breggin  MD, has been opposing the overuse of biopsychiatric treatments and promoting empathic therapy for decades.

"An empathic approach allows a therapist to use the healing power of professional therapy relationships rather than the mechanical or chemical manipulation of the brain." Peter R. Breggin  MD, has been opposing the overuse of biopsychiatric treatments and promoting empathic therapy for decades.

Links

• Website: Breggin.com

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"The best-selling author of more than 20 books brings you his years of therapy experience! With his genuine and profoundly engaging style of psychotherapy, psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin MD shows how to relate to patients and clients in a manner that engenders trust, mutual understanding, and the opportunity for recovery and growth. Rather than offering a new school of psychotherapy, Dr. Breggin's film aims to enhance your own style of psychotherapy. Instead of "burn out," look forward to every session and to improving your experience throughout your career. 

The film demonstrates that empathic therapies are the best approach to the full spectrum of potential patients, including psychotic, suicidal and violent individuals. The emphasis on empathy can also be applied to your personal relationships. Individuals and families have found this film useful. The training film DVD consists of five parts: An introduction to Empathic Therapy by Dr. Breggin, three one-hour therapy demonstrations, and a commentary afterward by experienced therapists. "

Dr. Peter Breggin, MD, Brief Intro to Empathic Therapy (2013)
 

Trailer : Empathic Therapy Training Video by Peter R. Breggin, MD

Author

The Heart of Being Helpful: Empathy and the Creation of a Healing Presence
"Dr. Breggin illustrates the importance of developing a therapeutic bond, or healing presence, between helping professionals and their clients. He provides useful vignettes, case studies, and personal insights to help beginning and experienced therapists develop more empathy in therapeutic relationships."

 

Dimensions of Empathic Therapy
"This inspiring contribution to the helping professions delves into empathy as a cornerstone of personal life as well as professional practice. Renowned contributors from various mental health disciplines — psychiatry, counseling, and social work — discuss such themes as the interrelationship of empathy with love, self-awareness, and self transformation. The application of specific techniques includes the use of writing to foster empathy; empathic therapy with different populations — children, adolescents, the elderly, and families; and how to bridge cultural differences in empathy therapy."

• Teaching and Learning Empathy: An Overview - Fred Bernak and Peter R. Breggin

• On the Incompatibility of the Biological and Empathic-Relational Model - Douglas C. Smith

• The Changing Face of the Ideal Therapist - Leslie Wolowitz, former president of the Family Psychology Division of APA

• Empathy is Not Enough - Jeff Rubin

• Empathy in Working With Adolescents and Their Families -  Mary Newell

• The Successful Use of Empathy With a Depressed Older Man - Rosemarie Ratto

• Empathy as the Medicine of Life - Richard A. Goodman

• The Patient's Need To Love - Therese Ragen, New York University

• Creating an Empathic Environment at the San Joaquin Psychotherapy Center - Kevin F. McCready, Clinical Director, San Joaquin Psychotherapy Center

• The Role of Empathy in the Wraparound Model - Sharon Morrison-Velasco

• Accompanied Autoanalysis: An Empathic Approach to Helping Deeply Disturbed Persons - Alberto Fergusson, President and Founder, Institute for Accompanied Self Rehabilitation

• A Model for Using Empathy in Counselor Education at George Mason University - Carol K. Kaffenberger, Diana S. Gibb, and C. Sally Murphy

• Culture and Empathy: Case Studies in Cross-Cultural Counseling - Rita Chi-Ying Chung, Fred Bernak, and Afet Kilinc

• Empathy in Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy - Clemmont E. Vontress

• Recollection, Empathy, and Reverie - Gerald J. Gargiulo, President: The International Federation for Psychoanalytic Education

• A Doctor's Reflections on Empathy -  Lawrence R. Epp

• The Use of Empathy in a Woman's Writing Workshop: An Instructor's Perspective - Erika Duncan, Founder of Herstory

• Empathic Self-Transform in Therapy -  Peter R. Breggin

Guidelines Issued by Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy HuffingtonPost blog
    Guidelines for Empathic Therapy - As empathic therapists: 

 

Empathic Therapy: A Psychotherapy Training Film (on DVD) By Peter Breggin, M.D.
This 5-part 4 hour film is offered for $39.95
"The film demonstrates that empathic therapies are the best approach to the full spectrum of potential patients, including psychotic, suicidal and violent individuals. The emphasis on empathy can also be applied to your personal relationships."

Empathic Therapy

"Empathy is rarely taught in graduate or professional schools, but empathy remains at the heart of therapeutic life. Professional training should incorporate a more systematic and conscious approach to  promoting the student's natural empathy.  At all levels of professional development, empathy should be woven into the other important facets of pscyhotherapy and human services.

Unfortunately, when health professionals are taught to rely on the prescription of psychoactive drugs, they are in effect instructed how to suppress the emotional lives of their patients and clients. 

An empathic approach allows a therapist to use the healing power of professional therapy relationships rather than the mechanical or chemical manipulation of the brain. The goal of therapy is to help clients maximize their ability to be empathic and loving toward themselves and others, to live ethically, and to become autonomous and self-determining in the fulfillment of all their chosen goals and ideals. In contrast, biological psychiatry views people as objects and suppresses their feelings with brain-disabling treatments, thereby interfering with the development of empathy and love, and the ability to take rationally determined actions based on sound value"