Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Relationship Between Empathy And Theoretical Orientation Of Counselors-In-Training, Elizabeth Manzano Boulton, Eric Davis

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

This study examined the relationship between theoretical orientation and empathy levels of a group of 166 counselors-in-training. Participants’ responses to the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire (TEQ) and the Theoretical Evaluation Self-Test (TEST) were collected and analyzed. Only individual items from the TEQ were found to have a relationship with the theoretical orientation inclination responses on the TEST. However, a trend between humanistic theories and counselors-in-training theoretical orientation inclination seems to exist. The study concluded that counselors-in-training might need to develop self-awareness before selecting a theoretical orientation that fit. Incongruences were found between theoretical orientation selected in the demographic questionnaire and the …