Social Worker Sympathy Essay

Social workers have been put on the bleeding heart liberal totem for years. They have been described as to compassionate, to emotional, to slow to act, and to sympathetic. While other individuals have described social workers as heartless and too quick to act. Which is an actual social worker supposed to be? In reality social workers are individuals, who do not fit in a certain type of stereotype that people assume they should. There are social workers who do fit the public’s expectations, but most do not. The only thing that social workers should have in empathy, and it should not be confused with sympathy. Empathy according to Webster’s Dictionary is, “the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions.” As a future social worker, it is important to be able to have the trait, and be able to use it in clinical situations. Empathy is a unique characteristic. It allows individuals so understand other individuals without getting emotionally involved in the process. It gives a chance for understanding individuals in a new level that most people do not. Empathy allows social workers to care without getting too involved in client’s lives. Clients will be able to get the impression that the social workers care without the social worker
getting emotionally involved in the process. Practicing empathy is safe for social workers.
There has been cases that social workers get to emotionally involved, and it could lead to sympathy. Sympathy according to Webster’s Dictionary is “the feeling that you care about and are sorry about someone else's trouble, grief, misfortune, etc.” Sympathy differs for empathy because it crosses a personal level of caring and getting emotionally involved. Social workers who use sympathy involve their emotions, and that could be detrimental to the client. Clients need a safe place to go for treatment and understanding. A social worker who is putting their emotional thoughts and wellbeing before the client is a disservice to the
profession. Sympathy is practiced everyday with friends and family throughout the world. Everyone has the ability to be see something on a personal level that is sympathy. A woman loses a child, another woman might put herself in that situation. That would be considered sympathy. Empathy is something completely different, and it often gets confused with sympathy to some individuals. Empathy is a professional way to understand emotional pain without personally getting involved. Individuals will need to learn empathy, and will be taught how to emotionally distance themselves from a situation. Sympathy cannot be taught, empathy can. There are things that can happen when social workers practice sympathy instead of empathy. There are two things that can happen when sympathy gets involved with social worker. The first is transference. Transference occurs when a client starts to form a personal connection with someone like a social worker. This can be detrimental the client as well as the social worker. If a social worker uses sympathy instead of empathy, a client could consider that as a personal response to the situation. Understanding another person’s thoughts and feelings, and putting one’s self in their shoes are two different things. Clients could pick up on that, and start to form a personal instead of a professional bond with a social worker. Another thing could happen is counter transference. Counter transference is when a therapist or social worker starts to bond with a client on a personal level. It is important to establish trust with a client, but allowing it to get personal crosses professional line. It is dangerous for a professional to get emotionally invested with a client, and it could damage their own emotional wellbeing. In conclusion, it is reasonable to assume why individuals would confuse sympathy with empathy. As social workers, it is their responsibility to know the difference. Clients will suffer for individuals who do not believe there is a difference between sympathy and empathy. Empathy is an important tool for social workers to do their jobs, and it should be used accordingly. Sympathy should only be used in personal situations.