Professional Empthy

How can you professionally empathise?

I have thought about this for a while now. I would have thought that professional care is such that is care from a distance, clear boundries and clear direction with a purpose. Empathy on the other hand is sitting in the dust with a person, emotional boundries are blurry, direction is not always clear and both parties are prone to emotional outbursts.

That is not to say that empathy is unhealthy, just different from the 'professional care' model'. I am an empathiser for the most part. I rarely feel comfortable is the professional care mode, and I struggle to not get emotionally involved in the stories of the young people I work with.

In the situation I am in, I see the only way to care is the empathic model, I don't believe you can care for most young people without being emotionally involved. As a result the lines blur from distinct boundries and allow some weird stuff to happen, sometimes for the best sometimes for the worst. Fortunately I haven't ever had an experience that has been for the worst. Thank God! But I have seen it happen. I have seen that when I am down, flat or just emotionally exhausted the students I am supposed to care for are the first ones to make sure I am alright. Is that professionally caring or is that becuase we are sitting in the dust together?

I love my emotionally exhausting job!