Carl Rogers once said, “a high degree of empathy in a relationship is possibly the most potent and certainly one of the most potent factors in bringing about change”. Mental health counselors need empathy, compassion, and prosociality to provide quality care and reduce the unacceptably high rate of health disparities for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). Contemplation could help provide tools for fostering empathy, compassion, and prosociality. However, the current research on contemplative practices and prosociality has chiefly ignored spiritually oriented practices, identifying the mechanisms that shape the outcomes of contemplative practices, the role of spirituality in the effectiveness of these practices, and the influence of contemplation on counselor prosocial behavior. This study will examine a contemplative practice known as Centering. Centering is a practice that has resulted in increased relational well-being, reductions in Depression, Anxiety, and Stress and increases in mindfulness and transcendence. Using experimental and intensive longitudinal methods (i.e., daily diary method and growth modeling), we will examine the effectiveness of centering on the empathy, compassion, and prosociality of mental health counselors in training and model the mechanisms that contribute to the temporal dynamics in participants, specifically how non-dual awareness influences prosociality in the practice over time.
