Classifying the empathic understanding of the nurse psychotherapist

The purpose of this article is to identify types of verbal communication approaches to empathic understanding, and to consider the way of psychological support for cancer patients based on those types. These types were derived from the nurse psychotherapy process used with 46 Japanese cancer patients involved in the author's practice as a nurse psychotherapist. The psychotherapy process was interpreted by the phenomenologic approach. These types are as follows: Type A: Reflecting the perceived meaning of the verbalized experiencing of the patient. Type B: Anticipatively communicating the intuitively perceived meaning of the patient's experiencing, not verbalized, but now aware. Type C: Communicating the intuitively perceived meaning of the patient's experiencing, indifferent now, but usually aware. Type D: Facilitating the patient in focusing on her or his implicit felt sense. Type E: Communicating definitely the insight of the patient's implicit felt sense. These approaches indicated that when both a patient and a nurse psychotherapist have a deep level of empathic understanding, the patient could interpret personal meaning clearly and change the previous meaning. This experience helps the patient recover his or her own way of being, while helping the patient to live in the here and now.