How can we empathize and make connection behind the phone? A first-person description of phone counsellors

Phone counsellors are highly exposed to stress and various psychopathological disorders such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress, or burnout. The physical and mental investment mobilized in their interventions can impact their capacity to welcome and empathize with their callers. This article proposes that adopting a phenomenological stance enables to better understand what empathy is in the context of phone counselling. We analyzed in depth the way in which empathic capacities are put in place during contact with the caller. Using an in-depth qualitative analysis technique called “Explicitation Interview” (Vermersch, 1994,2003), we explored how phone counsellors mobilize their empathy. We decomposed, moment-to-moment, the lived experience of these workers to better understand how their empathic capacities operate in a context of first-line’s psychological help. We will propose the RADAR model illustrating the emerged theorization with the facilitating and constraining ingredients of the emergence of empathy in this kind of professional context.