Loving Kindness Meditation: A Promising Practice for Reducing Stress and Increasing Empathy

Stress is a well-documented concern for counselors that includes increasing psychological and physiological burdens that exceed individuals’ coping strategies (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Counselors experience stress from ongoing accountability pressures, complicated client issues, compassion fatigue, role conflict, systemic advocacy work, vicarious trauma, crisis response, and more (Amatea & Clark, 2005; Baggerly & Osborn, 2006; Bryant & Constantine, 2006; Butler & Constantine, 2005; Gysbers, 2004; Lambie & Williamson, 2004; Webb, Brigman, & Campbell, 2005). Stress that is not managed can lead to a progressive downward spiral of negative emotional and cognitive states including emotional exhaustion, burnout, and, eventually, impairment. Holistic wellness is one approach that may mitigate stress and improve overall healthy functioning (Myers, Sweeney, & Witmer, 2000). However, little is known about what types of wellness practices counselors actually do. Moreover, specific practices and their impact on counseling professionals warrants more research to ensure that counselors are utilizing evidence-based wellness strategies for reducing stress. One promising wellness practice for reducing counselor stress and increasing empathy is Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM; Csaszar, 2012).