Caring for you, me, and us: The lived experience of compassion in counselors

There is growing interest in compassion within the context of counseling, given its potential to support the well-being of both clients and counselors. For counselors, compassion may improve self-care and protect against various empathy-related stressors, such as empathic distress. Compassion is commonly taught and studied according to a division of self-compassion or other-oriented compassion (also, other-compassion). However, it has long been recognized that the lived experience of compassion is not so neatly divided. The Buddhist traditions that have informed compassion science emphasize the interconnectedness of self and others, such that the lived experience of compassion can occur in more combined and holistic forms that orient toward suffering in both oneself and others. This may be especially important for understanding compassion in counseling, where the clinical utility of empathy for suffering may result in moments of shared suffering. We therefore conducted a qualitative study to explore how counselors with compassion training experience and use both self- and other-compassion, including an exploration of relationships between compassion orientations. Findings revealed self- and other-compassion could be experienced as relatively distinct, with benefits for both counselors and clients. Yet we also found ample evidence for the experience of self- and other-compassion in more interrelated and combined forms, with additional unique benefits. To our knowledge, these findings are the first evidence of combined compassion experiences in counselors, highlighting the need for more research on how self- and other-oriented compassion interrelate, as well as how they can be experienced and employed together in therapy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).