empathy Archives - Kevin Plummer, PhD https://kevinplummerphd.com/tag/empathy/ School Clinical & Consulting Services Sat, 15 Feb 2025 19:04:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://kevinplummerphd.com/wp-content/uploads/cropped-KP-SCCS-900-1-75x75.png empathy Archives - Kevin Plummer, PhD https://kevinplummerphd.com/tag/empathy/ 32 32 The Central Challenge https://kevinplummerphd.com/the-central-challenge/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-central-challenge Sat, 15 Feb 2025 17:54:36 +0000 https://kevinplummerphd.com/?p=3407 The central challenge for us all, as therapeutic educators, is to discover the child’s truth, to openly acknowledge it, and to keep telling ourselves the child’s truth, even as it challenges our own resilience and even if we are the only ones willing or able to do this. The children who find their way to […]

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]]> The central challenge for us all, as therapeutic educators, is to discover the child’s truth, to openly acknowledge it, and to keep telling ourselves the child’s truth, even as it challenges our own resilience and even if we are the only ones willing or able to do this.

The children who find their way to us for help, children who have been hurt and mistreated by those they’ve had to rely on for care, children who—undiminished by their repeated failed efforts—still fight for what they need, only to bring more attention to the fight and less to what they really need, children who no longer trust—constantly hijacked by phantom threats and imagined rejection, children who are afraid of the world every day, complicated children who have long surpassed the capacity of their parent’s, teacher’s and therapist’s to fully understand them or to help them. These children need to be seen by us for the depth of their distress and the full extent of their ordeal, without minimizing, normalizing, denying, or needing to spare the feelings of those who have tried to help and failed, or those who have not tried as they should have.

Without blaming, accusing, or finding fault with anyone who has been involved, or anyone who is involved right now, we must have the courage and the honesty to face the truth behind the suffering that comes through the school door in the morning. We must truly and fully see these children—not the story that others have imposed on them—and we must convince them that they are fully seen, heard, felt, and understood, that we will endeavor to help them and that we are capable and unafraid and won’t look away.

 

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]]> Empathy – IEP Goals https://kevinplummerphd.com/empathy-iep-goals/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=empathy-iep-goals Fri, 01 Sep 2023 13:46:36 +0000 http://kevinplummerphd.com/?p=706 Empathy is the capacity to understand, experience and care about the emotions of others. This involves the ability to perceive emotion in others, the capacity to experience an emotion in response to the situation experienced by another person or living thing.

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]]> Empathy is the capacity to understand, experience and care about the emotions of others. This involves the ability to perceive emotion in others, the capacity to experience an emotion in response to the situation experienced by another person or living thing…

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]]> The Role of Staff Wellness in Implementing Therapeutic Programming https://kevinplummerphd.com/the-role-of-staff-wellness-in-implementing-therapeutic-programming/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-role-of-staff-wellness-in-implementing-therapeutic-programming Fri, 27 Jul 2018 13:05:29 +0000 http://kevinplummerphd.com/?p=1489 Helping staff stay therapeutic in a job that readily erodes one’s therapeutic capacity. No educator or clinician can be perfectly therapeutic all the time and students don’t require that. It is important, however, to be very aware, as a staff, of your current capacity to be therapeutic, and to take steps to take care of […]

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]]> Helping staff stay therapeutic in a job that readily erodes one’s therapeutic capacity.

No educator or clinician can be perfectly therapeutic all the time and students don’t require that. It is important, however, to be very aware, as a staff, of your current capacity to be therapeutic, and to take steps to take care of yourself. Staff wellness is critical to therapeutic quality and all therapeutic programs should provide opportunities for staff to address wellness.

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]]> Callous, Unemotional, and Coercive Behavior Scale https://kevinplummerphd.com/callous-unemotional-and-coercive-behavior-scale/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=callous-unemotional-and-coercive-behavior-scale Sun, 21 Aug 2016 13:59:54 +0000 http://kevinplummerphd.com/?p=719 Ratings form for items such as: makes remarks that offend or hurt the feelings of others, unable or unwilling to express the appropriate feeling when making amends, behaves in a way the he/she knows will upset another.

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]]> Ratings form for items such as: makes remarks that offend or hurt the feelings of others, unable or unwilling to express the appropriate feeling when making amends, behaves in a way the he/she knows will upset another…

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]]> Empathy Building https://kevinplummerphd.com/empathy-building/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=empathy-building Sun, 21 Aug 2016 13:55:06 +0000 http://kevinplummerphd.com/?p=715 These are examples of interventions designed to build empathy skills. Successful treatment requires full immersion, all day long across a multitude of routine situations, with a focus on the needs and perspectives of others.

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]]> These are examples of interventions designed to build empathy skills. Successful treatment requires full immersion, all day long across a multitude of routine situations, with a focus on the needs and perspectives of others…

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]]> Empathy Scale https://kevinplummerphd.com/empathy-scale/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=empathy-scale Sun, 21 Aug 2016 13:52:10 +0000 http://kevinplummerphd.com/?p=712 Use this empathy rating scale to rate when someone becomes concerned when another child is upset, becomes sad when listening to a sad story, relates easily to the feelings of the characters in stories.

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]]> Use this empathy rating scale to rate when someone becomes concerned when another child is upset, becomes sad when listening to a sad story, relates easily to the feelings of the characters in stories…

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