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Dramatherapy Blog.

Reflections, reading and stuff.

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Empathic Distress and Compassion, and some reflections on psychodynamic theory.

Empathic Distress This morning I read Chapter 3 of McGonigal's "The Science of Compassion".  I almost wish I'd read it before I wrote yesterdays blog.  But on the other hand, it is useful for me to scaffold information in this way, using my own personal understanding, such as it is, to make sense of my reading, and then make modifications to this understanding as I read more and obtain more information to assimilate into the schemas that I am generating. Chapter 3 speaks of empathic distress.  This to my reading, is what I was speaking about when I discussed the situation whereby a therapist, when faced with a clients distress, may become so overwhelmed by the distress that they feel in response, that their ability to be a helpful is affected. McGonigal speaks of emotional contagion and empathic distress, although I am not sure that these are (or are intended to be) the same thing, they are both useful terms in this discussion.  Emotional contagion seems to be a
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Compassionate presence - Chapter 4 of Kelly Mcgonagal's "The science of Compassion"

"The first recipient of your loving kindness and compassion is you ...  You feel love, your heart expands" Kelly McGonagal, The Science of Compassion, 2016 In the 4th Chapter of McGonagal's book,she describes how studies have demonstrated that even if one cannot take away the suffering of another, connecting with one's own compassionate intention for that person, does benefit them.  This post on my blog discusses chapter 4 of her book, with some thoughts of my own. Benefits of compassionate intention Researchers in a study based at Wigforce University put two people into a room, one of whom was experiencing distress and the other being an experienced compassion meditator.  They both read a book, however the meditator was, covertly, meditating with the focus on loving kindness thoughts such as "may you be safe and secure", "may you be free from suffering"  for 10 minutes.  In another condition, the meditator also used touch, (although this was
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