Empathy training

Wed Feb 14 00:00:59 CST 2007

I am unusually busy at present, which is great. But I did want to 
acknowledge you email, and thank you for it. I want to give you a brief 
up-date on my news,too. Esmie is now established at school, and this is 
giving me a little more time to do things other than just care for her.
I had a lovely 75th. birthday, with one friend I have only once seen since 
school days turning up, and many others besides, including a gestalt 
therapist and her husband who had been my therapist for four years, and then 
Jutta's for three or four. Also neighbours from London, and   many people 
from around here, with their chidren, who are Esmie's friends, and mine.
I am now preparing a workshop for the European Psychotherapy Association 
cConference in Florence, which I am attening together with my family and a 
therapist friend. We are going to do clowning, as the theme is Humour in 
Therapy. My colleague is a worker with children, a nun who observed Esmie as 
part of her training, and has become a family friend since.
I am also doing a course here in South Brent on Emotional Literacy for 
Children, as a first  step to conversion to children's work.Have also just 
become a governor of the school, and so am thrown into the educational scene 
in this responsible role.
I spend a lot of time looking after Esmie, and learning more about child 
care with other parents. I also need to offer Jutta a lot of support, as her 
job is very demanding in today's scene. I hear your voice, though, when I am 
tempted to bring her issues to the training I am doing (which is quite 
demanding of personal stuff, in spite of being  only a basic course) as it 
involves working with puppets, sand trays etc.....
I keep well, and play tennis with my brother twice a week. This is a service 
to him as well, as his wife has Alzeimers, and he is the principal carer, 
who needs to get out and have other interests. I do other things to try to 
keep fit, like Yoga, and               Gym work.
I am pleased that you have found such an outlet in the East for your great 
work. I never doupted the method you have developed, and the containment it 
offers is always in my mind as I explore possiblities of therapy work here. 
I think there were unfortunate dynamics in the English scene, which made it 
hard to develop things as we would have wishes. This has not diminshed dmy 
respect for the method or for you generosity in developing it..I hope you 
manage the self-care you need among all your work and still get support from 
Zerka. She wrote a kind message for my 75th. which I appreciated. I am so 
glad to be still growing with all you foke and able to delight in Esmie's 
exploration of life.
I also hope to do Humanistic funerals - and maybe mariiages etc. as well. 
Just not time for everything.

Best wishes, love, and thanks again,
Jutta is OK and we go out for a night away together  this evening, as it is 
Valentine's Day. She is becoming a great manager, if only she can survive 
the stresses.
Bernard.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <drkatetsi at mac.com>
To: <list at grouptalkweb.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 11:00 PM
Subject: Re: Empathy training

Bernard....i read your latest article in the bpa journal.  Congrats!  It was 
delihgtful!  Tele, kate
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless handheld.

-----Original Message-----
From: bernard widlake <bernardwidlake at btinternet.com>
Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2007 21:00:17
To:Adam Blatner <adam at blatner.com>, list at grouptalkweb.org
Subject: Re: Empathy training

Of course Yallom in Practice of Group Psychotherapy talks about The Schizoid 
Patient on p.382 of the 1975 edition. If Jim does not have this I may be 
able to copy it for him and send it via email. Yallom speaks of the need for 
great patience and of the reward of the effort. Training in an "as if" kind 
of way.
Hope this is some help.
Best wishes, Bernard.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Adam Blatner: <mailto:adam at blatner.com>
To: list at grouptalkweb.org: <mailto:list at grouptalkweb.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 5:24 PM
Subject: Empathy training

Dear Grouptalk Colleagues, I received an email from Jim Catlin ( 
jcatlin at discover-net.net: <mailto:jcatlin at discover-net.net> ) who writes: 
I'm a psychotherapist from Wisconsin and I am seeing an Asian gentleman 
(from a male-dominant culture) on an outpatient basis who committed a 
horrific crime almost 10 years ago. He was found not guilty by reason of 
mental defect and was recently released from one of our state mental 
institutions. Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who have 
worked w/him all the way back to his crime believe that he has little or no 
capacity for empathy; he's informally diagnosed with Narc Pers Dis. One of 
the goals I have set for myself (and him) is to find ways to "teach" him 
empathy, to have him behave in empathic ways, and ultimately become empathic 
himself, to whatever degree we can get to. I read your online article on 
teaching empathy and it has given me some solid basic ideas/approaches I can 
use use w/him, plus several areas I can further research for 
materials/resources. Do you know of any other curricula, tools, or resources 
that exist for teaching adults to become empathic? I'm wondering if anyone 
has put together a sort of treatment curriculum (like with sex offender 
programs) that is effective in the empathy-building area. tks, Jim
... and Jim gave me permission to forward this to y'all... to write him if 
you have ideas.

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