ABSTRACT
The empathie model offers a fourth view of spiritual presence. Rollo May believed that the act of empathic identification with another human being became the curative force in psychotherapy. Empathic attunement involves a similar “self-emptying” of all preconceptions in order to “feel with” others, encouraging and authenticating their own inner world, providing safety which can contain the full range of experience each client chooses to explore. In the empathic model, spiritual presence is manifested through all such efforts of psychotherapists to empty themselves of their own needs and preconceptions, reminiscent of the kind of “sacrificial expenditure” contained in the biblical caring metaphor. Perhaps the most influential and widely practiced theory of psychotherapy emphasizing empathy was client-centered therapy. The spiritual expectation is that empathic care that instills unconditional, positive regard can liberate the self to make full use of its inner resources. Some expression of empathic qualities in care forms an essential part of most therapies.
