The effect of counseling skills training on counselors' empathic tendency, empathic skill and burnout levels

The main purpose of this study is to determine the effects of BasicCounseling Skills Training on counselors? empathic tendency, empathic skill andburnout levels.The research conducted with 90 counselors, in which 48 counselorsconstituted the experimental group and 42 counselors constituted the control group.The pre test-post test experimental model with control group was used in theresearch. The data were gathered by using Emphatic Tendency Scale and EmpathicSkill Scale which were developed by Dökmen (1988) and Maslach BurnoutInventory which was developed by Maslach (1981). Also a questioannaire,developed by the researcher, was used to determine the demographic and theoccupational characteristics of the counselors.The data obtained by the questionanaire were analized by percentages. BeforeBasic Counseling Skills Training, in order to determine the equality of both groups,independent samples t test was used. Before and after training, the mean scores ofboth groups, obtained from the scales and the inventory, were determined. Then,repeated measures of ANOVA was made to determine the significance of thedifferences between the mean scores, as well as the significance of the effects of thetraining.It was found that, there is a statistically significant increase in empathictendency, empathic skill and emotional exhaustion levels of counselors after training.This means that, Basic Counseling Skills Training was effective in increasingempathic tendency and empathic skill levels of counselors. Despite this result, theraising of emotional exhaustion levels shows that, after the training, counselors feelas if the client demands at work exceed their? abilities to cope, leading to feelings ofbeing overwhelmed or feel as if overextended by work.