Teaching Kids Empathy is a website devoted to helping parents, educators, and mental health professionals promote the development of compassion in young people.
I am a psychiatrist who started this project after seeing many success stories in my practice, but also many failures. Years of clinical experience taught me that psychotropic medications and counseling only go so far when it comes to helping people achieve happiness and fulfillment in life. While many of my patients were fortunate enough to achieve a full recovery from their symptoms, countless others continued to struggle, despite decades of being in treatment.
As a specialist in pediatric psychiatry, I was especially interested in preventive medicine as it applied to my field. If we can figure out how certain mental disorders develop in children, can we help them avoid unnecessary suffering later? I firmly believe that the answer is “yes.”
The most striking common feature that I have noticed among adults with psychological problems is an impaired sense of empathy. They are focused on themselves and their own lives, but display a lack of concern for others. With a diminished ability to share and understand the emotions of those around them, these people feel lonely and isolated. The result can be problems ranging from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to Major Depression to Alcohol Dependence. While these disorders have a wide range of symptoms, they are all related to various forms of self-centeredness. Traditional forms of psychiatric treatment do little to address this issue.
Fortunately, research studies have shown that children can learn empathy, and that becoming a more compassionate person can lead to improved mental health. The key is instilling these values as early in life as possible, because as we get older our patterns of thinking and behavior become more difficult to change.
The purpose of this website is to discuss the importance of teaching empathy and compassion to kids, and to
demonstrate how these principles can be applied in our everyday lives. As our culture has come to be dominated by internet flame wars and reality television, encouraging children to have consideration for others can be an uphill battle. Parents and other concerned adults need all the help that we can get.
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Comments and feedback are welcomed!