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List of Empathy Statements with Examples




Showing empathy is yet another vital interpersonal skills to build interesting human relationships. The two basic ways of expressing empathy is through effective verbal and non-verbal communication. One of the best ways to learn empathy skills is through customer service representatives, call center agents, sales executives and counselors. In fact, they go through a professional empathy training and presentations to learn the art of empathy. Though empathy skills is one of the common traits among customer service representative
Empathy Statements Examples List
Empathy Statements Examples List

What is Meant by Empathy?

Putting yourself in other person's shoes, think, feel, and provide solutions to the other person's problem is empathy. Listening with understanding and empathy is one of the characteristics of emphatic people. We exercise empathy the more challenges we face in our life

Can Empathy be Taught?

Some people believe that empathy can be taught while others believe that empathy is inborn. It is also believed that adults can learn and develop empathy more easily than kids as adults have experienced longer life instances more than kids.

Empathy Words, Phrases and Statements

LEAP is a simple easy-to-recall mnemonic that can help you to remember the basic empathy words and language:-
  • Listen
  • Express
  • Ask
  • Pause

Listen Attentively

Listening is one of the basics of verbal communication skills and helps in building rapport during any conversation. Before expressing yourself or asking questions, attentively listen to others to understand their needs.

Examples of Empathetic Listening phrases and statements (Also called Loud Listening):

  • I'm listening...
  • I hear what you say...
  • Go ahead and explain it I will listen to you...
  • You are right...
  • I do agree with you...


Express Yourself

Once you have listened to others, it is time to express your opinion, thoughts and beliefs. You can express yourself to persuade your ideas by keeping others' needs in mind through prosody of your language.

Empathy Expression, Phrases and Sentences Examples:

  • Let me tell you how I feel about your concern...
  • In my opinion, You are right and ....
  • I like to express my feeling about this situation...
  • I strongly believe that...
  • If I may express my thoughts in this regard...

Ask Question and Clarify to Leave a Good Impression

The art of asking effective questions is one of the admiring traits of any communication. By asking questions:
  • Assumptions will be clarified
  • Understand the other person's needs, desires and requirements
  • Helps others to express their point of view
  • Helps you to use appropriate arguments that suits others' needs.

Empathy Questions

  • May I know why did this happen...
  • Please tell me about it...
  • Would you mind explaining it...
  • What made you think so...
  • May I know how did you arrive at this conclusion...

Pause, Wait, and Take Time

Instead of being anxious to express yourself or persuade others, you must relax, pause, and take a calm approach by thinking and reflecting on what others are saying about your argument. with empathic intelligence you can build interesting relationships, enhance your leadership skills both at home and in workplace.

When do you Show Empathy


  • When you are giving genuine compliments
  • While you are negotiating or persuading others.
  • When you like to politely say no to others.
  • When you giving and receiving feedback.
  • While you're building rapport with someone.

5. Empathy Building Exercises - Games

Simply recall all the good and bad, as per your perception, incidents and reflect on how did you respond or react in those situations. And, recall those incidents when others felt good or bad because of your deeds.

6. Empathy Quotes

  1.  If you can understand yourself, the chances are you will be able to understand others.
  2. If you have too many troubles in life, relax, by handling these troubles you will enhance your empathy skills
  3. Always strike an equal balance between empathy, persuasion and assertiveness.

7. Empathy Poems

Here is a list of poems, which we heard in our school days, that depicts concern, care and understanding of others:

  1. Baa Baa Black Sheep, have you any wool, yes sir....
  2. 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive...then I let it go again...

8. Multifaceted Empathy Test/Worksheets

Empathy also called Emotional sensitivity differs from person to person. Here is a list of emotional sensitivity situations. You can measure yourself by taking this test by answering any of the four parameters. It is called empathy scale. A-Very sensitive, B-sensitive, C-neither sensitive nor insensitive, D-insensitive E-very insensitive:

8.1 Empathy Situations-Test your Empathy Quotient (Empathy Psychology)


    Highly Emotionally Sensitive People Examples
    Empathy Test/Game/Activity
  • A small cut in your skin while using a blade
  • Use of word, "Stupid" or any other offensive word used by your manager during a conflict
  • You missed your train while going on a business trip
  • Staying away from your parents/spouse/children for more than 4-5 weeks or more than a year
  • Spending time watching a comedy show for 4-5 hours everyday
  • Eating oily food
  • You are very keen to get promotions and level changes every two years in at work
  • Making money
  • Touching an opposite gender while having a social interaction
  • An opposite gender touching your during a social interaction
  • Wearing a tight jeans to office
  • killing a mosquito
  • Loosing your eye sight in an accident or disease
  • You are diagnosed of a blood cancer

9. Empathy Quiz

You will be able to empathize with someone if you have gone through these situations atleast once in life. Take this empathy test as a game or activity, it can also be used as lesson plan or checklist, Answer Yes/No to the below questions:

  1. Have suffered from a persistent pain for more than 4 months. for example headache, spinal problem etc  
  2. Did a monotonous boring job for more than 6 months
  3. Worked for more than 14 hours a day with strict deadlines
  4. Had been unemployed for more than 6 months deliberately searching for jobs
  5. Felt like committing suicide atleast once in life
  6. Won a prestigious award
  7. Met a celebrity
  8. Have a permanent disability or disorder
  9. Proposed love to a girl/boy
  10. Failed in job interviews continuously for more than 10 times
  11. Had been a victim of an accident
  12. Had a broken relationship/ major conflict with parents/spouse
  13. Shouted, screamed at someone, cried, beat someone or beaten by someone
  14. Owned huge wealth
  15. Lost huge wealth
  16. Discriminated by the society because of gender/religion or ethnicity.
Once you are aware of their sensitiveness you will able to predict their behavior, realize their personal values and solve conflicts of everyday life situations.

9. Empathy Books

Some of the books that can be categorized under empathy title:
  1. I'm OK, You're OK by Tomas Antony Harris
  2. Celebrating Silence by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
  3. Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather

10. List of Professions that Demand Empathy Skills

Though every profession demands the art of empathy, few jobs demands this skill on priority:
  1. Sales Professional
  2. Customer Service Representatives and Call Center agents
  3. Nursing

11. Importance of Empathy

To build interesting human relationships, handle interpersonal conflicts, to persuade or to be assertive, empathy plays a vital role. Empathy is relative. So, phrases, "Too much empathy", "Extreme/excessive empathy", "Hyper Empathy","Low empathy", "Lack/loss of empathy", "Inability to feel empathy", is relative and sometimes differs from culture to culture--also called cultural empathy. It is significant especially while playing various life roles such as husband/wife, inner self and the other social responsibilities.

12. Empathy Synonym/Antonym 

Synonyms: fellow feeling, identification, responsiveness, compassion, understanding, sympathy
Antonym: Apathy

13. Types of Empathy

There are two types of empathy:-self empathy and social empathy.

To empathize, a vital life skill, is to put yourself in the other person's point of view, to feel and to understand others when you're playing different life roles and it requires both soft and behavioral skills. It involves both your intrapersonal as well as your interpersonal attitude. The motive behind showing empathy is to genuinely understand the other person's problems and concerns. Ensure that you completely understand others' needs during persuasion. It requires both good intrapersonal as well as interpersonal skills to show empathy.

An Example of Empathy (Very Nice Video, It will Change the way you Think about People)

 



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Avoid judgemental statements during communication using VAK Model: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic | Avoid Redundant Statements during communication such as, FREE GIFT (a gift is always free)

See Also

Interpersonal Conflict Examples using AEIOU mnemonic: mAnager, pErsonal, Intimate, sOcial, pUblic
List of Empathy Questions: PRODUCTION Mnemonic: Probe, Rhetoric, Open, Declarative, Unutter, Close, Tag, Imaginative, One-word, Negative
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