It is not wrong to live to try to satisfy your needs, but when patients start doing this in an unbalanced way, it can be a warning sign for therapists. This imbalance occurs when the patient completely ignores the needs of others, inhibiting them from enjoying the social benefits of being altruistic with those around them.

But what exactly is altruism? What are its benefits and how can your patient have this trait? We will answer each of these questions below, check it out!

What is altruism?

Altruism can be defined as a voluntary act in which an individual sacrifices something personal, such as time, capital, and other things, to help another individual achieve something they need. Generally, altruism is motivated solely by concern for the well-being of others.

It is not an excessive concern to the point where the altruistic patient completely denies their individual characteristics, such as dreams, desires, needs, and motivations.

Metaphorically, being altruistic would be like following flight instructions in an emergency, “put the oxygen mask on yourself first, then assist the passengers next to you.”

To make it clearer, see below some examples of altruism:

• doing something for someone else without expecting a reward;
• giving up things that could bring personal benefits if it could harm others;
• helping someone despite costs or risks;
• sharing resources, even during difficult times;
• showing concern for another person’s well-being.

Types of altruism

It is worth noting that, according to verywell mind, psychologists have identified some types of altruism.

Family altruism, as the name suggests, is a type of altruism involving close family members. For example, parents and other family members who constantly sacrifice for the needs of each family member.

Another type is reciprocal altruism, which occurs when an individual wants to return the help of another person as a form of gratitude, that is, to return the favor.

There is also group-selected altruism. In this type, the individual is altruistic based on a group of people they like, promoting social support and benefiting the group as a whole.

Now, pure altruism is a moral type where the individual engages in helping people, even with many risks and no guarantee of reward. It is motivated by their moral values.

But what would be the benefits for your patient to be altruistic? We will answer this question in the next topic.

What are the benefits of altruism?

According to a PMC study, altruism manifested in acts of volunteering, informal help, and natural support habits promote positive emotions in individuals. These emotions give individuals a sense of well-being with life.

Other benefits of altruism that we can highlight are: promoting psychological well-being, increasing social support, maintaining a sense of perspective, stress relief, and encouraging a better community. 

Psychological well-being comes when the altruistic individual realizes that their actions are promoting good emotions and positive thoughts about themselves and others. It is an exercise in caring for known and unknown people, and this ends up changing the altruism thinking habits. This relates to the other benefits.

The increase in social support happens when the individual starts to act naturally and experiences new attitudes and sacrifices that allow them to investigate and seek to do more. This ends up helping to maintain the perspective of their life, from becoming more grateful for what they have compared to the lives of the less fortunate to potentially changing their worldview and understanding.

All of this ends up influencing other individuals to be altruistic as well, which generates a sense of community concern, creating a better and more harmonious community. Finally, some stress reasons that may be linked to others’ selfish thoughts or attitudes can be significantly reduced, causing the altruist to have fewer stress-related problems.

Now, how can your patient have this trait and become an altruistic individual? Check it out below!

How can your patient become altruistic?

As a therapist, you must have identified that your patients are different people, with varying levels of altruism or selfishness, and this can create difficulties in teaching your patients to have more of this trait. Even though the patient needs time and practice to acquire this skill, some may not even be interested in taking the first step with small actions.

Therefore, it is important that the patient, even before being introduced to the challenge of being altruistic, is encouraged to reflect and question their selfishness and the impact it has had on their life. It is good to assess whether the patient does not have any experience or trauma linked to altruistic actions when they were a child and suffered abuse because of it, or other issues that kept them from wanting to be altruistic.

In this case, hypnosis can help the patient assertively put themselves in someone else’s shoes, perceiving their actions and needs, in addition to deeply practicing empathy, which can help trigger more altruistic actions on their part.

If the patient shows interest, the therapist can suggest the following steps:

• The patient should look for someone in their routine whom they can help without expecting anything in return and observe what they felt when they helped;
• not all help needs to be financial, and it can start with friends or family who need someone to take care of the dog, the house, or would like to receive a treat, such as a homemade sweet;
• when helping, the patient should reflect on what society would be like if people had more of this behavior;
• Finally, they should be guided during sessions to explore these acts more until they can do it naturally and feel pleasure in it.

Therefore, if the therapist identifies that their patient could benefit from being altruistic, the therapist can use hypnosis to better guide their patient and help them remove possible psychological obstacles.

In this way, the therapist can help their patient balance their desires with social needs in a healthy and functional way.

If you liked this content and are interested in learning more about how a hypnotherapist can help people, read our article on the benefits of hypnosis for children.

Originally posted 2021-05-21 14:15:35.