Three types of empathy:
1. Basic
2. inferred (Advanced)
3. Invitational
1. Basic
- Teachers and counsellors respond to feelings that have been explicitly communicated.
- Basic empathy builds trust
- Basic empathy shows students that you are willing and able to deal with feelings.
- Use basic empathy to label feelings or to summarize feelings that have been expressed.
- Use basic empathy to demonstrate that you are able to hear feelings.
2. inferred (Advanced)
- Response to non-verbal language and cues.
- Teacher pays attention to what is not being said.
- Useful when students lack feeling vocabulary or when they don’t express their feelings.
- May make student feel understood.
- Be mindful of errors when interpreting.
- May be met with resistance from student.
- Use to bring feelings in verbal channel of communication.
- Use to identify feelings that are not being expressed verbally.
3. Invitational
- Encourages students to explore their emotions.
- Sends the message that it is important to consider emotions to understand and solve problem situations.
- Keeps us from moving too quickly through problem solving.
- Initiated with “How do you feel?” type questions and statements.
- Use to normalize feelings and make experiences easier to talk about.
- Use to encourage discussion of feelings.