Empathy, Vulnerability, and Immanuel

Summary

Back when I worked as a case manager, Brene Brown came into my consciousness with her work on empathy. Empathy was talked about so much in our social work circles, in fact, that we often made jokes about it. Empathy is a learned skill, we were told. Empathy is learning another’s world view. As Brene Brown would say, “our” perspective is not “the” perspective.

This was all fine when I worked with high schoolers in the public school. I saw their home lives, met their parents and guardians, and observed them in their classroom environment. I felt I spent more time with these children than many of their family and friends. I saw them struggle with decision making, staying clean, and learning the basics of how to live independently which included learning how to interact with adults. I had huge files on them and could point out to them how they were progressing, and encouraging them to “stick with it.”