The Many Faces of Empathy in Experiential, Person-Centered, Collaborative Assessment

Paul Lerner was an amazing clinician and teacher, and he wrote that empathy was the heart of his particular approach to psychological assessment. In this article, I discuss 3 meanings of empathy: (a) as an information-gathering tool, (b) as an interpersonal process, and (c) as a healing element in human interactions. I then demonstrate how each of these meanings of empathy is exemplified in Lerner's written work and in collaborative and therapeutic assessment.