2011/04/01 by K. E. Gerdes, Karen E. Gerdes, E. Segal +1 · 1 citation
Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics #Empathy and Medical Education #Social Work Education and Practice
paper · doi:10.1093/sw/56.2.141
crossref issued 2011/04/01 · crossref published 2011/04/01 · crossref published-print 2011/04/01 · openalex publication_date 2011/04/01 · crossref created 2012/01/11 · crossref deposited 2017/08/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Empathy is more important than ever to a national population worried about difficult political and socioeconomic situations. During the last 10 years, an enormous amount of research has been carried out to elucidate the nature, mechanism, and function of empathy. New research from social-cognitive neuroscience and related fields indicates that, like language or eye-hand coordination, empathy is an innate human capability that can be greatly enhanced by purposeful and informed guidance. Empathy is particularly important to social work practice. Clients experiencing empathy through treatment have improved outcomes. Empathic social work practitioners are more effective and can balance their roles better. Social work practitioners can and should learn about emerging research on empathy and use that information to better serve their client populations. This article, emphasizing research of the past decade, focuses on empathy and its benefits as an asset to social work practitioners.