Breezy yet brainy, Empathy Lessons provides 30 compelling and actionable lessons in restoring and expanding empathy in relationships and emotional well-being, at home and at work, in parenting and in business, at school and in the private consulting room, in the corporate jungle and in the empathy desert, in the public market and in the intimacy of the bedroom. Empathy is oxygen for the soul. So if you are short of breath due to life stress, get the expanded empathy delivered in this book. Just as the body needs oxygen to live physically, the soul needs empathy to live emotionally. Most people are naturally empathic, but the cynicism and denial needed to survive everyday life drives empathy away. Remove the obstacles to empathy and empathy naturally develops and grows. That is the training in a nutshell without all the details, guidance, and practice needed to succeed. Find out how to take your empathy to the next level in this book. The empathy lessons in this book include how- To perform a readiness assessment; establish a set up for success in cleaning up inauthenticities that block empathy so that empathy can expand and flourish; Empathy is not an "on-off" switch but a tuner (dial or dimmer) that expands or contracts in accessing the vicarious experience of the other person; Empathy works as a method of data gathering about the other person, providing a vicarious experience of the other person without being flooded by the experience; Introspection, vicarious experience, listening to one's own "voice over" and radical acceptance are the royal road to empathic receptivity; Empathic receptivity overcomes emotional contagion, creating a set up for clear communication of feelings and experiences; Empathic understanding overcomes conformity and enables shifting out of stuckness into contribution, transformation, and leadership, including satisfying and flourishing relationships; Empathic interpretation overcomes projection and is the folk definition of empathy, walking in another's shoes, adding "top down" empathy to "bottom up," empathic receptivity; Empathic responsiveness drives out anger and rage, acting as a soothing balm to suffering and emotional upset, deescalating conflict and aggression; Scientific, peer-reviewed, evidence-based research confirms that empathy reduces inflammation and stress; Relationships get "weaponized" in bullying and, coming from empathy, how to overcome bullying, reestablishing boundaries: recommendations to students, teachers, administrators on how to stop bullying (including cyber-bullying) and promote empathy; Disorders of empathy such as Asperger's and autism and (in a different context) the psychopathic person, the "Natural Empath" (caught between nature and nurture), and (fully buzzword compliant) mirror neurons, are related to empathy; "Corporate empathy" is not a contradiction in terms, "CEO" now means "chief empathy officer," and empathy is now the ultimate "capitalist tool"; Empathy is the "secret sauce" in sexual satisfaction within an authentic relationship, featuring the desire of desire, the "good parts," and intimate engagements that are sustainable. Empathy Lessons put you back in touch with your empathy. Empathy lessons-not merely the title of the book, the actual practices-provide applications to tough cases. The applications give back to you your power in overcoming life's social stresses and the power to expand well-being in the face of emotional upset, handling difficult relationships, meeting business challenges in the corporate jungle and empathy desert, overcoming bullies and bullying, and applying and practicing empathy in sex and romance. Not a conventional self-help book, but a writerly, intermittently humorous, romp through empathic fields, you get 30 actionable recommendations. Feeling like you are thrown "under the bus" again and it's getting crowded under there? Get the empathy you need to fight back and flourish in this book.
Author Biography:
Lou Agosta teaches and practices empathy lessons at Ross University Medical School at Saint Anthony Hospital (Chicago). Prior to Empathy Lessons, he is the author of three previous books (and numerous articles) on empathy including A Rumor of Empathy (Routledge 2015). Graduating as an unemployed philosopher from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in philosophy entitled "Empathy and Interpretation," Lou trained in data management technology and worked in technology and business with such companies as Forrester Research, Giga Information Group, Blue Cross of Illinois, Greenbrier and Russel, Inc., and IBM, before realizing that the world does not need more data, the world needs expanded empathy (Lou now acknowledge that the world needs both). After undergoing over ten years of psychoanalyses, dynamic psychotherapy, and related training to recover from childhood and adolescent traumas, Lou resumed teaching and practicing empathy lessons. He has over ten years teaching experience at the college and university level in philosophy and psychology at such schools as Roosevelt University (Chicago), DePaul University, Loyola University, the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, and the Graham School of Continuing Education (University of Chicago). Lou was the host of an Internet Talk Radio show entitled "A Rumor of Empathy" in the spring and summer of 2015, expanding empathy in the individual and the community. Lou provides introductory and advanced training, consulting, speaking, and teaching sessions and formal university level classes in empathy and related matters. Lou has trained medical students, business people, educators, senior executives, middle managers, social workers, administrators, parents, and behavioral health professional (and others) on how to expand their empathy for success in relationships, careers, and what means the most to them in their lives. In addition to teaching, Lou is an empathy consultant in private practice, delivering individual and group empathy lessons (and coaching), near his home in Chicago, IL (USA).
