Empathy is a skill we learn in childhood. It comes from having attuned parents who meet our needs. With attuned parents it is safe to feel what they are feeling. We learn that when we express understanding for our parent’s …
Tag: psychotherapy
How to Cultivate Empathy
It seems many people either feel they have either too much empathy or too little. When we have ‘too much empathy’ it is usually a boundary issue, not an empathy issue. For those people who feel they lack empathy, research …
The Benefits of Practicing Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand how others are feeling and show compassion towards them. It is the ability to imagine what someone else’s life is like, to stand in their shoes and feel what they feel, from their point …
Empathy and the Brain
Empathy is the ability to understand how others are feeling and show compassion towards them. It is the ability to imagine what someone else’s life is like, to stand in their shoes and feel what they feel, from their point …
Four Areas of Emotional Intelligence
Socrates in Plato’s Apology was credited with saying “An unexamined life is not worth living”. This is at the core of self-awareness. Self-awareness calls us to reflect on our words and actions, to be curious about our triggers, to understand …
Developing Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
Emotional quotient (EQ) is the ability to understand and process your emotions in a positive way to release stress, empathise with others, communicate effectively and work through conflicts. People with a high EQ have a high level of self-awareness and …
Central To EQ Are The Abilities To…
The ability to perceive emotions is something we learn in childhood. When my son was about 9, he went through a phase of about two months where he would regularly ask me if I was feeling angry. He would say: …
Emotional Intelligence is a Predicator of Success.
Children can learn emotional intelligence and so can couples. What is emotional intelligence (emotional quotient or EQ)? EQ is the ability to understand and process your emotions in a positive way to release stress, empathise with others, communicate effectively and …
The Key Factor in Determining Marriage Satisfaction
John & Julie Gottman are two of the leading researchers in the field of relationships and marriage. They created a ‘Love Lab’, a fabricated apartment with a beautiful view and cameras to study couples who stayed overnight, as part of …
How to Understand Someone Else’s Point of View
When we take on the perspective of someone else, a whole network of brain regions become activated. The dorsomedial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, the temporoparietal junction and precuneus. These areas are responsible for memory, attention, social cognition, integration and mental …