According to New York Times bestselling author and psychiatrist Judith Orloff, M.D., empathy is a superpower that can transform your life, your relationships, and the world. In her new book The Genius of Empathy: Practical Skills to Heal Your Sensitive Self, Your Relationships and the World (with foreword by The Dalai Lama), Dr. Orloff shows readers how to ignite and embody the emotional intelligence of empathy as a daily healing practice.   

The Genius of Empathy demonstrates ways to tap into the gift of one’s sensitivities without being drained. Readers will learn how to soothe their nervous system and stop absorbing other people’s emotions. It’s a practical, action-driven guide for highly sensitive people and for those who want to develop empathy as a healing skill.  

The book is divided into three sections. It begins with the magic of empathy to find greater self-love and healing—including from trauma. Subsequent chapters teach readers how to apply empathy to their relationships, communities and the world. Exploring each chapter’s practices, readers will learn the art of empathic listening, how to stop overthinking, and the importance of setting healthy boundaries and showing loving detachment to prevent overwhelm and compassion fatigue.  

Throughout the book Orloff uses insights from neuroscience, psychology and energy medicine to teach readers how to use and amplify their empathy without feeling overwhelmed. The book also offers tips on how to prevent empathy burnout, techniques to enhance self-empathy and healthy giving, how to use empathic communication and leadership skills at work and home, how to show empathy for others—even when you’re not in agreement, and how to protect oneself from those with “empathy-deficient disorder” such as narcissists, sociopaths and bullies.  

Each chapter has compelling anecdotes of how Orloff’s patients enhanced their lives with this book’s techniques. “Cultivating empathy is a kind of peaceful warrior training,” says Orloff. “You will learn to be both strong and loving, neither a pushover nor rigid. Wherever you are in your life, this book can meet you there and lift you higher.”  

Judith Orloff, M.D., is a New York Times bestselling author with the NEW book The Genius of Empathy. She has also written The Empath’s Survival Guide and Thriving as an Empath, which offers daily self-care tools for sensitive people. Dr. Orloff integrates the pearls of conventional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of intuition, empathy, energy medicine and spirituality. She will host a global online webinar about empathic healing techniques based on The Genius of Empathy on April 20 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. PDT. To get a free empathy eBook and empathy gift collection with purchase of book visit DrJudithOrloff.com. 

The Genius of Empathy was reviewed by Ronald Alexander, Ph.D., author of Core Creativity.