Is Empathy a Trainable Skill?

A recent study conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison measured whether or not "compassion meditation" can increase compassion in people.  The results appear to show we can in fact train others to develop greater empathy and compassion for others.  Below is an article on the study, and it also provides a link to the compassion meditation exercises used in the study.  Might be interesting to give it a try and see how it affects you?

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3037045/want-to-train-your-brain-to-feel-more-compassion-heres-how

Working in the forensic counseling field, we spend a lot of time working with clients in empathy development.  I'm thinking of using the compassion meditation exercises as part of our treatment program to see how it performs with my clients.  If we give it a try, I'll do a follow up post on the feedback I received from clients on it's effectiveness.

The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds has the compassion training audio downloads available for free at the follow link:

http://www.investigatinghealthyminds.org/compassion.html

If you use this training, please let us know your feedback on the impact it had on your clients.