To communicate your understanding of that person’s feelings. For me, this last step can sometimes feel risky. I know that when I teach empathy skills to graduate students, this is often where they stumble (where we all stumble). Let’s imagine that Dawn misunderstood my feelings or didn’t fully get my perspective, and her response was more along the lines of “I know, it’s so frustrating. Steve could have remembered to bring those damn cookies to school. Why do we have to remember everything?”
