“Empathy is the ability to feel and understand what another person may be feeling but ultimately … it means connection … and feeling understood.”
What you’ll hear in this episode:
· Learning to use empathy as a first response and a parenting tool
· Empathy as reflecting your child’s feeling back to them versus owning their feelings or relating our own personal experiences
· How using personal experiences in place of empathy can escalate conflict
· How to use empathy to help your child build emotional resilience
· Using empathy effectively to help your child feel heard
· Empathy as a practice and a gradual learning process
· Childhood developmental milestones in empathy
· How to model empathy for your kids
· Using the “Fake It Til You Become It” approach to empathy in your parenting
· Being mindful of your physical self in how you demonstrate and model empathy
· Parenting from the couch as a barrier to empathy
· Echoing, mirroring and repetition as empathy
· The power of validation in feeling heard – when looking on the bright side gets in the way
· Empathy as a transferrable skill.
