Empathic Accuracy in Therapists

Research on self-disclosure has demonstrated many psychological and physical health benefits connected with openly discussing reactions to emotional material (Sloan, 2010). However, under ethical constraints, therapists are not at liberty to talk about the often highly distressing issues clients discuss with them. Occupational hazards that may result for therapists such as burnout and compassion fatigue have been explored in the literature. Though there is evidence therapists may become more adept at coping with these hazards with experience, Figley (1995) proposed that highly empathic individuals might be particularly at risk for compassion fatigue. However, there is little previous research devoted to measuring empathy in therapists to determine the connection between empathy and compassion fatigue. The current study compared empathy and compassion fatigue in therapists (beginning and advanced therapy trainees) and age and gender-matched laypersons ("nontherapists") by self-report measures as well as a performance task where participants watched a pre-recorded video of a woman describing a traumatic experience and inferred her thoughts and feelings while their heart rate was measured. The inferred items were rated for accuracy and these items as well as heart rate were compared between participants to determine empathic accuracy. It was hypothesized that therapists would have greater scores on measures of empathy and compassion fatigue than nontherapists, and that advanced therapists would show greater empathic accuracy and compassion fatigue than beginning therapists. Results indicated there were no significant differences between groups on measures of empathy, and that nontherapists scored significantly higher on a measure of compassion fatigue relative to therapists. Findings suggest that a high tolerance for exposure to emotionally distressing material may differentiate therapists from laypersons.