Youth MHFAiders need to acknowledge what the young person has said and show acceptance and validation through their responses. This will enable the young person to feel connected and supported and helps to explore any concerns which may prevent them from getting support. Empathy Empathy is a state where you can truly hear and understand another person’s feelings. Empathy also means you have the motivation to improve that person’s situation, as well as being able to demonstrate these motivations through action. By increasing your level of engagement in a conversation you can increase your level of understanding. This can be achieved through listening to the young person and striving to understand them. High levels of engagement and understanding result in a young person feeling they are being showed empathy. Showing sympathy has lower levels of engagement and understanding, and pity has the lowest. To understand empathy, it may be helpful to also understand pity and sympathy. “When you’re listening to a young person, if the MHFAider is being kind of closed off or making it seem like you’ve got somewhere else to be, the young person might not really want to talk too much and open up.” Jamie 17 years old Sympathy Sympathy is a common reaction to a difficult situation of another person. There is an element of emotional investment, but there’s also a feeling of distance between you and the other person.
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