Sustaining empathy within social work - a model for training & practice

While empathy has traditionally been viewed as a fundamental skill in social work (Trevithick, 2012, BASW, 2021, SWE, 2019), recent research has identified an apparent lack of empathy within children and families practice (Lynch et al, 2019) and raised questions as to whether empathy is compatible with modern safeguarding (Wilkins & Whittaker, 2018) roles and within current financial practice climates (Lavee & Strier, 2018). Informed by an interpretative phenomenological approach (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2022) , this paper presents findings from my doctoral research, examining practitioners’ lived experiences of empathy within their practice with children and families. The research includes the perspectives of practitioners at different stages in their careers - experienced workers with more than three years practice, newly qualified workers and team managers or supervisors, exploring practitioners’ experiences and beliefs about the use of empathy with children and their families. The studies used an innovative visual research method (Rose, 2016) combined with interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to support participants’ reflection on their experiences. I will present an overview of my findings which include: - the embodied nature of empathic experience in social work; the challenges of balancing empathic skills with the authority of the social work role; the importance of organisational culture and leadership to create emotional climates which sustain empathic capability. From these findings, I propose an ecological model of ‘balanced empathy’ and identify the implications for training, supervision and professional discourse to at both practitioner, organisation and leadership levels to sustain empathic practice in social work.