Caring for patients with kindness and connection

This guide for mental health professionals offers an insightful, conversational approach to mastering empathic communication with clients. Dr. Douglas Flemons invites readers to join him in a dialogue that incorporates voices from clinical research and practice, philosophy (both Eastern and Western), neuroscience, and the arts. In his book, “Empathic Engagement in Clinical Practice,” Douglas explains the nuts and bolts of empathy and offers guidelines for how therapists can make sense of clients’ thoughts, feelings, and choices from inside their worldview. He also shows how the clinician, with compassion, curiosity, and an empathic imagination, can create a heartfelt connection that allows the client to feel respected and understood and that opens the way for collaboration and therapeutic change. Listen to the conversation with Dr. Douglas Flemons as we explore how mental health practitioners can effectively engage with clients, even those who are deeply suffering with complex emotional challenges. Douglas Flemons PhD, is professor emeritus at Nova Southeastern University (NSU). He is an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy clinical fellow and approved supervisor. He directed a family therapy training clinic for 5 years and created and directed the NSU Student Counseling Center for another 6 years. Douglas has authored five other books, as well as 60 articles and book chapters that develop and illuminate systemic approaches to learning and practicing brief therapy, clinical hypnosis, supervision, suicide assessment, academic writing, and qualitative research. He and his wife, with whom he coedited a handbook on brief sex therapy, live in Raleigh, NC. If you are interested in learning more about the process, the power, and the use of empathy in therapy, this podcast is for you. Links & Resources: Link to Empathic Engagement in Clinical Practice: https://amzn.to/4vpsl5w Other books written by Dr. Douglas Flemons: https://amzn.to/3SuEPtN Materials to Reference: Learn more about Context Consultants - Telehealth therapy services provided by Dr. Douglas Flemons and his wife, Dr. Shelley Green: https://contextconsultants.com/