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Showing posts from January, 2020

What is Empathy?

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By: Christine Hammond, LMHC, NCC Empathy is one of those words that gets tossed around without much explanation. Having empathy is said to improve your marriage, your career, your parenting skills, your emotional well-being, your friendships, and basically your life. It has become the emotional aspirin of our day. But what does that really mean in the practical sense? How does a person show empathy in a way that is meaningful and transformative without being fake? The technical definition of empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another’s position. The problem with this definition is that it focuses on the receiver’s experience. The giver is still left confused with how to show empathy. Empathy does not come naturally for everyone. A person born with a biological limitation might not have the ability to “feel” empathetic. Head injuries can a