Abstract
The purpose of this article is to outline a phenomenological pedagogical method for teaching nurses and caregivers as well as university and college students in the field of nursing science how to increase their own sensitivity to their reflective processes and how it relates to their empathic abilities. The pedagogical method has its theoretical foundation in Husserlian phenomenology. The phenomenological tradition provides the pedagogical method with a systematic and rigorous approach toward issues such as subjectivity, reflection, intersubjectivity, empathy, and meaning. Practical training procedures where based on a classical Rogerian design, although altered in order to be more general and thus to apply to most occupations in which presence to another person's world is valued as part of the human service profession. The method consists of three steps that are on a pedagogical level interrelated. By introducing the relation between empathy and intersubjectivity as well as reflection and subjectivity in a practical, training situation, professionals and students in nursing science are able to enhance their own understanding of human meaning. Plausible benefits for caretakers include feelings of being understood and experiences of a sense of self-worth and well being.