SGPsychStud: For Therapy - Empathy

Image Credit: http://www.livescience.com/39560-hyper-empathy-case-report.html

It has been a while since I  wrote about counselling and/or therapy topics.  The only two posts that are directly related to counselling are:
Analogies - The passenger and the driver
For Therapy - The thinker and the observer

Recently I have took up a counselling course to polish and revise on my counselling skills, and during the course, the topic of 'Empathy' came up and it resonated deeply in me.
So what is 'Empathy'?

A very famous TED talk by Dr Brené Brown explains the difference between empathy and sympathy:

In my opionion, I believe that empathy is one of the main skills that a therapist would require.  Having empathy enables the therapist to be able to relate better to the client's emotions during the therapy session.

Did you know that there are three types of empathy?
According to Daniel Goleman, they are "cognitive empathy", "emotional empathy", and "compassionate empathy".

Having empathy is an essential ability that all therapists should have and could be developed over time; however scientists are still unsure of the feeling of empathy occurs in our brains.

Do you want to know how empathic you are? Take this test now!
Lastly, have you heard of the case of the woman with "hyper empathy"? Read it here on LiveScience.com!