This blog is dedicated to Jasmine and my current class of students
Recently, in a classroom discussion, my students and I spoke about wanting to add empathy as the seventh core value to the NASW Code of Ethics (2008). My students, have yet to declare social work as their profession, yet they immediately recognized empathy as an important aspect of the social work profession. They acknowledged that to be an effective social worker, one must attempt to imagine what it is like to live the life of another, or walk in their shoes so we say. We spoke about empathic attunement, or attempting to create an impermeable connectedness by tuning into clients’ emotions, experiences, and rhythm of being. I informed them that the NASW Code of Ethics has not been revised since 2008 and encouraged them to reach out to NASW, asking that empathy be included as a core value. Today, I very fortunately and accidentally called my former co-worker, Jasmine. I was sad to hear that she has experienced many losses since we worked together, but was inspired by how she allowed her own suffering to manifest as deep empathy. Although I could tell her losses had hurt her heart, I admired how she allowed grief to fuel her ability to connect with clients. Now, Jasmine, I must tell you was already one of the best social workers I know. However, as she described it to me, her dive into empathy established an awakening into the lived experiences of the people we serve. Empathy, she claimed made an already skilled social worker, even more effective. Jasmine and my students are right, empathy is profoundly important in how we approach social work. Not just on the micro and mezzo level but as we move forward in the current sociopolitical climate. As a profession, I think we must consider making empathy a core value, which in turn would emphasize the need of a whole profession to imagine what life is like for others. Not only will this improve how we intervene, but overall it will help us achieve our over-arching mission…to make society better.
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