In this fifth installment of the Empathy Series, Piper Harris turns the focus inward to the counseling profession itself. Our field has long celebrated empathy as its highest virtue, but what happens when feeling becomes the only tool in the box?
Through clinical insight, CBT framing, and a touch of Shel Silverstein’s wit, Piper explores how the industry keeps “eating soup with chopsticks”, recycling emotional tools that look noble but leave both clients and clinicians hungry.
She traces the historical swing from William James’s pragmatic psychology to Carl Rogers’s humanistic empathy, showing how good intentions evolved into burnout culture. You’ll hear how unmanaged empathy activates the brain’s threat system, why depletion is not proof of devotion, and how ethical, data-driven compassion offers a sustainable path forward.
The Industry Mirror challenges counselors and anyone devoted to helping others. to trade performance for precision, sentiment for structure, and to finally pick up the spoon.
