Center for Building a Culture of Empathy

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Culture of Empathy Builder:  Alissa Stover

UC Berkeley: Effective Expression of Empathy
Alissa Stover

Alissa Stover is new gradate in Psychology from UC Berkeley. She along with other students, designed and facilitated a series of empathy classes there over a several year period.  The Empathy Tent Team worked with the classes to facilitate the empathy circle practice and set up the empathy tent in Sproul plaza.  We dialogue with Alissa about her experience facilitating the classes.


 

Empathy Tent at UC Berkeley Sproul Plaza


We believe that empathy is not only fascinating as a concept, but important as a skill on an individual and societal level. By the end of this course we aim to have a better understanding of empathy and to feel more able to use it in our daily lives.

 

 

 

 

Do you find it mysterious how two people can communicate about emotions without needing to read thoughts?

Do you care deeply for others and wish more people would be the same?

Or do you feel disconnected emotionally from other people and wish to change that?

Do you think it's possible to improve society on a larger scale by improving the way people relate emotionally?

We believe that empathy is not only fascinating as a concept, but important as a skill on an individual and societal level. By the end of this course we aim to have a better understanding of empathy and to feel more able to use it in our daily lives.

The class incorporates short weekly readings and reflection pieces, as well as group trips and activities. We hope to research empathy as a group and build relationships with each other over the course of the semester. We will also volunteer as a group at the end of the semester, and encourage students to give back to the community on a regular basis.

 

One prominent definition of empathy is that it is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. The objective of this course is to offer a multidisciplinary approach to empathy. Topics will include development, definition & effects of empathy, with an additional emphasis on improving empathy individually, community building, and connecting to each other as a class. Throughout this semester, we hope to develop a better understanding of questions such as:

  •  How is it that many times we can put ourselves into someone else’s shoes, regardless of whether we know the person or not?

  • When we read fiction or watch certain movies many emotions arise, as if the characters from such stories were real; why is it that we feel such emotions, even though we know the stories are not real?

  •  How unique is the human ability to empathize, what is its role in our species, and what facilitates cross-species empathy?

There is a final paper, and weekly thought papers based on readings. We will also be exploring meditation as a route towards improving interpersonal skills, with required weekly practice.

 


 

Spring 2018:  Effective Expression of Empathy  (4305)
One prominent definition of empathy is that it is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. The objective of this course is to offer a multidisciplinary approach to empathy, from using a scientific perspective to exploring personal views. We will use meditation, group discussion, readings, and written assignments to develop a deeper understanding of this topic. As empathy is an interpersonal skill and we will be developing it as a group, attendance/participation is mandatory.

 

 

Empathy Tent at UC Berkeley Sproul Plaza: