Empath Coaching

Empath: someone who is highly in tune with and can experience the emotions of others.

You can be both a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) and an empath, but there are some differences. Empaths often experience and can have sensitivity to many of the same things that HSPs do. The main difference is that in terms of being sensitive to other people’s emotional and physical state - empaths actually feel and absorb feelings and sensations from others, whereas HSPs typically don’t.

Humans all fall somewhere on the spectrum of empathy, but there is a difference between being empathetic and being an empath.

Having empathy/being empathetic means that when someone is going through something, (for example, if someone is upset and experiencing something sad) you can understand and feel for them. Being an empath means that you actually experience and feel it with them.

Common traits of an empath:

• Being very aware of tension and other people’s moods

• Feeling other people’s emotional and/or physical state as your own

• Valuing deep connection with others

• Avoiding violent and gory movies

• Having vivid dreams

• Being able to read the room

• Being very sensitive to light, smells, sounds, different fabrics, and/or feelings of overwhelm

• Needing and valuing time alone

• Being deeply moved by art, music, or beauty

• Having a “rich inner life” with deep complex thoughts, and strong feelings
  

Because empaths are so sensitive to energy, emotion, and their environment, one very common challenge is feeling drained and overwhelmed.

For some empaths, it can be difficult to know where your energy ends and someone else’s begins. For example, have you ever stood close to someone who is feeling sad and suddenly feel an overwhelming amount of sadness in your own body too, even if you don’t know them?

This is why self-awareness and boundaries are so important. Because in order to live on your own terms and not feel like a victim to your environment, you have to learn to protect yourself and manage your energy.

You can learn to work with your sensitivity, instead of against it.