Empathy is the gift of being able to put yourselves in someone else’s shoes and feel things as if you were them. However, there are several different types of empaths, each of which has a different set of empathetic abilities.
The 6 main types of empaths are:
The emotional empath is one of the most common types of empaths. If you are this type, you will easily pick up the emotions of others around you and feel the effects of those emotions as if they were yours.
The emotional empath will deeply experience the feelings of others in their own emotional body. For example, an emotional empath can become deeply sad around another individual who is experiencing sadness.
For emotional empaths, it is important to learn to differentiate between your own emotions and those of others. In this way, you can use your ability to help others without becoming drained.
Those with this type of empathy can pick up on the energy of other people’s bodies. They intuitively know what ails another person. Many people with this type of empathy become healers either in the conventional medical professions or in alternative ones.
Physical empaths may ‘feel’ an awareness in their physical body when treating someone. They may also ‘see’ blockages in a person’s energy field that they sense need treating.
If you are a medical empath, you may pick up on symptoms from others and feel them in your own body. Taking on the physical symptoms of others may lead to health problems.
Some people with chronic illnesses such as fibromyalgia or autoimmune diseases might find it helps to strengthen their own energetic field so that they can turn this ability off when necessary. Taking some training in a form of healing can also help to hone this ability.
Geomantic empathy is sometimes called place or environmental empathy. Those with this ability have a fine attunement to the physical landscape. If you find yourself uncomfortable, or really happy in certain environments or situations, for no apparent reason, you may be a geomantic empath.
If you are a geomantic empath, you will feel a deep connection to certain places. You may be drawn to sacred stones, groves, churches or other places of sacred power. You may also be sensitive to the history of a place and be able to pick up on sadness, fear or joy that have occurred in locations.
Place empaths are highly attuned to the natural world and grieve for any damage to it. They watch with horror when trees are cut down or landscapes destroyed.
If you are this type of empath, you will probably need to spend time in nature to recharge. You may also find helping in an environmental project very healing for you.
It is also important for you to make your everyday surroundings as harmonious and beautiful as you can. You may feel happier if you fill your house with plants and natural scents. You might also like to choose natural materials such as wood and linen for your clothing and furniture.
If you are a plant empath, you intuitively sense what plants need. You will be green-fingered and have a true gift for placing the right plant in the right place in your garden or home. Many plant empaths choose to work in parks, gardens or wild landscapes where they can put their gifts to good use.
In fact, if you have chosen an occupation that involves plants, then you are probably a plant empath. Some people with this gift actually receive guidance from trees or plants directly by hearing it within the mind.
If you are this kind of empath, you will already know that you need a lot of contact with trees and plants. You might like to strengthen this bond by sitting quietly by a special tree or plant and attuning more closely to its needs and guidance.
Many empaths have a strong connection with animals. However, an animal empath will probably devote their lives to working for the care of our animal friends. Those with this gift will know what an animal needs and may be able to telepathically communicate with the creature.
If you are an animal empath, you probably already spend as much time with animals as you can. You may find that studying the biology or psychology of animals helps you to refine your gift.
You could also consider training as an animal healer as your special talent can enable you to find out what is wrong with an animal and treat it accordingly.
If you are a claircognizant or intuitive empath, you will pick up information from other people simply by being around them. One glance at someone can give you all kinds of insight into that person. You will immediately know if someone is lying to you because you can sense the intentions behind their words.
Those with this gift resonate with others’ energetic fields and read the energy of others very easily. This is closely related to the telepathic empath who can read another person’s thoughts.
If you have this ability, you need to surround yourself with people who you feel aligned with. With this gift, you may need to strengthen your energetic field so that you are not constantly bombarded with the thoughts and emotions of others.
Being an empath is not easy. You may find it confusing, disorientating and exhausting. However, understanding which of the types of empath you are can help you to use your gifts and abilities to help yourself and those around you.
Sharing our experiences of being an empath can increase our understanding. If you relate to any of these types of empaths, please share your experiences with us.
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Can you have multiple of these or all of them? I feel I have all of them.
Try being all six. I can’t explain it. I just can’t. I don’t have dreams. I have recollections of events, times and places I’ve been a very, very long time ago. Places I miss being, Have a very special connection to, doing things and seeing things where everything seems to make sense in terms of detail except for some emotional mystery and all of the pain, emotions, physical sensations, etc. are there. I’ve seen people burned alive at the stake in memory and in “real” life, sadly, and for some stupid reason I’ve felt their fear, pain and death. You could say I’ve dreamt of being burnt alive but again, nothing weird about it, just straight up burning. Dreams are really fucking weird. Recollections of your deep past, if you’ve lived that long, moments are burned in and the detail is stunningly accurate and very real. I’m a lifelong paramedic. I feel people’s chest pain. I feel the 8’ 1/4” rebar gutting through a construction foreman. I feel the intense impending fever of doom even when I’m perfectly fine, only to know shortly after someone has died. When Jamal Kashoggi was killed and dismembered....the bag over his head wasn’t it. Trust me on this. The forensic specialist they brought in with paralytic medications knew exactly what he was doing. I’ve been under paralytics, conscious. It’s the scariest fucking thing ever. As for pain, docs often prefer to be left alone rather than resuscitated. I met a post resus patient I didn’t do a workup on that had all the symptoms of post resus and I felt them. Not pretty. But very thankful to be alive, he was. When I met him, I immediately felt a sharp pain in my rib cage for no reason. Come to find out that’s where his ribs were cracked during CPR. DO the CPR, folks. Ribs can be fixed. (Side note, I once told my partner to step on the gas cause I didn’t think a CPR patient was gonna make it. He was dead to the world but he pulled through. Weeks later he met up with us and asked “who was in back with me?” My partner pointed to me and the guy asked me “you didn’t think I was gonna make it, huh?” Yeah. From then on, I always talked positively to and played music for CPR patients.) But sometimes no amount of drugs, pain meds, sedation, etc. will do. This is why I’m ok with the ability to choose death with dignity. Squishy meat sacks just don’t deal with pain very well at all. Except for empaths. We just deal and move on. It’s all we know. The few empaths who can just simply look across the street at a busy intersection with lots of people and sense something deeply disturbing from a kid in a stroller are truly rare. Those who actually feel the physical and emotional pain of others for real, even rarer still. The ones who embody the pain of Gaia and all within? What the hell ARE we?
I think I may be all of these. Is that rare? Cause all of these types happen frequently to me.
Wow! Now my entire life makes sense! My family used to call me space cadet because i would start talking about what someone was feeling and they had no clue what i was talking about. So to them it was very random and nonsensical. I have also foretold things that have come to pass, im always, always, always right and that sucks sometimes to. I have 100 other indications of what i am but, not the time or energy to elaborate and surely have no guidance to help me through all the emotions, visions etc. I have no idea, im truly at a loss
My name is Christine and I am a mental health therapist who specializes in trauma with children as young as three. I have many “gifts” that I have been told are “natural born gifts”, just meaning that I was born with my gifts. I had not realized until about 10 years ago there were actually names to what I have done all my life. I have many of the empathic abilities listed; Emotional Empath, Geomantic/Place Empath (just learned that name), Plant Empath (although not “all” the pieces), Animal Empath and super strong claircognizant/Intuitive Empath (this one I have been most aware of my entire life, just not the labeled name for it.)
As I spoke with a colleague of the psychology field yesterday, I was informed that I was Psych as well. I do not know what I could describe my gifts since it has always been a part of me, minus the labels for each one. Since I was unaware that these were “special” things I could do, I have never had “formal” training with any of these. The concerning part for me, in recent months all of my gifts have amplified in intensity. Everything seems so much louder to me (the joke is I have HD hearing abilities). I walked through my place of employment and freaked out that I could “hear” what others were merely “thinking” but not saying out loud. My visions are more vivid, I experience events physically without ever actually being at the location; this is a new one for me. It is overwhelming, to say the least. I was given some titles to books to read so that I can better understand and get myself grounded and centered. Does anyone have any suggestions? I need to understand as much as I can before it a chance to drive me mad, literally.
Sidebar – I have always known I was not like others, but I never felt like an outsider, so to speak. As an adult, I do find myself feeling alone and as though I am an outsider. Any suggestions on how to ground and protect myself, please feel free to share, I can use just about anything right now.
I've had that stuff all my life and it used to consume me. My family is completely oblivious to it and when I try to mention it say that's it just my own emotions. They've always told me this and I believed it to the point I went mentally insane. Being able to differentiate between what is actually yours and isn't really helps. I can't go to funerals anymore because I feel everyone else's sadness especially the ones closest to the person and I literally used to take that on as my own. Being in mental health that is especially important to you. You can have empathy for the person without it consuming you and without taking on others emotions. I struggle with that and looked into going into the mental health before and realized I just can't.