Empathy & Autistics in the Helping Professions

Despite potential challenges, we also excel in certain skillsets

Created by author

What is empathy, anyway?

I am currently reading a textbook called Choices: Interviewing and counselling skills for Canadians, written by Dr. Bob Shebib. I recently read a section about the importance of empathy in counselling relationships, and found some interesting points.

Dr. Shebib initially describes empathy as, “the capacity to understand the feelings and views of another person.”

This can be difficult.

People from differing neurotypes often struggle with cross-neurotype empathy, as illustrated in Milton’s Double Empathy Problem.

Based on work by Damian Milton — (image created by author)

---

BUT! …

Later in the same section, Dr. Shebib expands on the concept:

“An empathic attitude is characterized by one’s willingness to learn about the world of another person and begins with suspending judgement.”

Ah-ha!

Willingness to learn and suspending judgement may be less difficult than understanding the feelings of others — especially for those of us who struggle with Alexithymia.

Alexithymia is a term used to describe difficulty noticing, identifying, or recognizing emotions (more about that in a bit).