Phases of Empathy: A Movie Review

Abstract

The current paper makes use of a commercially successful movie “Dear Zindagi” to introduce the concept of empathetic skilfulness. The movie is about Kaira (Alia Bhatt), cinematographer by profession, who is going through a tumultuous period of life. For this she approaches Dr. Jahangir Khan/Jug (Shahrukh Khan) who is a 
Psychologist/Counsellor/therapist by profession. Empathy is recognized by professionals as a key ingredient of every counselling therapy. This paper is an attempt to emphasize upon the continous use of empathy in therapy using various techniques discussed using practical examples taken from the movie itself. Empathetic skilfulness is conceptualized as running through five phases (Client expression, clinician reception, clinician understanding, clinician expression and client reception) wherein each phase has been discussed using techniques, examples and analogies.