Empathy

Feeling with someone’s experience enough to track their reality, without losing your own center.

Description

Empathy mirrors another’s state in your nervous system: useful for connection, risky without Self balance. In IFS, empathy helps you sense what a Part or person feels so you can attune, not absorb. It precedes Compassion, which adds warmth and action.

What Empathy is NOT:

Emotional contagion; rescuing; agreeing with everything felt.

Examples:

Feeling a friend’s tension and slowing your voice.
Sensing an exile’s fear without collapsing into it.
Saying “that makes sense” instead of “me too.”

see also:

Compassion; Co-regulation; Self-energy; Boundaries; Empathy vs. Compassion