Week 7 of 12
Empathy & Perspective-Taking
Seeing through another's eyes.
Participants practice cognitive and emotional empathy while maintaining their own center.
Learning objectives
- Distinguish cognitive empathy, emotional empathy and compassion.
- Practice perspective-taking with curiosity.
- Recognize empathy blockers (fixing, minimizing, one-upping).
- Balance empathy with self-care to avoid over-identification.
Teaching notes
- Empathy does not mean agreement or excusing harm.
- Perspective-taking is a guess; check it by asking.
- Highly empathic people may need boundaries to prevent burnout (Week 9 builds on this).
Examples & scenarios
The frustrated customer
A front-desk worker shifts from defending policy to saying 'You've waited a long time and that's frustrating,' and the tension eases.
Teen silence
A father wonders what school feels like for his son today, and asks instead of lecturing.
Compassion fatigue
A ministry leader who absorbs everyone's pain learns to say 'I care about this, and I need to rest before I can help well.'
Weekly action step
Offer one intentional empathic response each day and note the other person's reaction.
Optional Scripture reflection
Offered for those who find faith meaningful; feel free to skip.
Romans 12:15
Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Which is harder for you?
Philippians 2:4
Looking to the interests of others — how can you do this without neglecting yourself?