The power of empathy: Helen Riess at TEDxMiddlebury

Dr. Riess is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She directs the Empathy & Relational Science Program, conducting research on the neuroscience of emotions and empathy, and is Co-Founder, Chief Scientist and Chairman of Empathetics, LLC. She is also a core member of the Research Consortium for Emotional Intelligence and is a faculty member of the Harvard Macy Institute for Physician Leaders.

Dr. Riess has devoted her career to research on the neuroscience and art of the patient-doctor relationship and teaching psychiatry residents and medical students. Her research team conducts translational research based on the neuroscience of emotions. The effectiveness of Dr. Riess's empathy training approach has been demonstrated in several studies including a randomized controlled trial. She has developed faculty curricula for "Teaching the Teachers" of Psychotherapy that is used by faculty psychiatrists. Dr. Riess's empathy training curricula are implemented internationally in healthcare as well as in business.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[keithhards]

E - Eyegaze
M - Muscles of facial expression
P - Posture 0 Notice the other person's posture - open, closed
A - Affect - expressed emotion. Try labeling the other persons expressed emotions upset, happy, sad
T - Tone of voice - Listen to their tone of voice
H - Hearing the whole person - understanding the context in which others live. Do not judge
Y - Your response - Most feelings are mutual

[greta]

"Most people need to have their specialness reflected back in the eyes of others
in order to see it themselves."
So powerful

[KaiaMouse]

"Cyberbullying is probably on the rise because it is much easier to inflict harm on people you never see"

Hit the nail on the head with that one.

[gabriellasanchez]

Ive recently became obsessed with learning about empathy and human connection, im 17 and all my life ive never truly felt understood. Ive never been able to bond with a counselor or therapist. And it made me curious. Now that I discovered self awareness and somewhat understand my own emotions. I want to help other people, especially in my age group because i truly feel a lot of their pain of not being understood or felt.

[FeelTalks]

Beautiful talk, Helen! Empathy is what makes us HUMAN ---- the most profound connections we have spark when two people share a common emotion, and feel each other's pain, joy, sentiment. Much love <3

[dr.arthurciaramicoli]

Dr. Riess exudes empathy in the way she relates-warmth, kind presence, interest in human nature and most importantly a keen desire to help. When I wrote The Power of Empathy in 2000 I speculated about the neurochemical changes empathic interactions create, with Dr. Riess's work we can now scientifically  prove that empathy is good for our brains and for love and compassion to survive.

[jonathanakerele]

This video was real deep. The ability of people to look at each other and acknowledge our similarities rather than always fighting over the differences be them physical or mental is the big key antidote to resolving conflict without violence. If every individual were willing to imagine themselves in each other's situations rather than write each other off mentally and then justify that write off as a pass to harm each other you wouldn't have armies, jails/prisons, divorce courts, police forces, gangs, war lords, etc. Everyone would be willing to calm down and resolve their disagreements or unfamiliarity without insulting, injuring, or killing each other.

[Myia_Monroe]

This was such an amazing video, it really drives home the importance in understanding others beyond yourself. My career choice now is based on my stance of treating others how I want to be treated and the importance of empathy in everyday life. Without empathy, their truly is no hope in humanity.

[nonottoday]

I’ve had hyper-empathy my entire life, and I’ve truly struggled with it. It hadn’t occurred to me till recently that people see it as a gift, so now I’m here trying to learn as much as I can about what it means to have empathy so I can better understand myself, how to utilize what i was given instead of cursing it for the rest of my life

[SuperT]

I'm crying as we speak just as I continue to listen and hear her. This is something I want to share with everyone I know and love.

[별규대샘]

01:58 A heart-rate experiment
05:34 The components of empathy
06:38 acronym "empathy" created
06:48 E stands for eye contact
07:50 Muscles of facial expression
08:43 P stands for posture
09:16 A stands for affect
09:45 T stands for tone of voice
10:39 H stands for hearing the whole person
11:00 Y stands for your response
11:12 We're constantly absorbing the feelings of others
12:10 We reflected the feelings of others
12:54 I feel your pain
14:32 A critical precipice with technology
16:06 why empathy matters

[sarvgrover]

Empathy for each other can improve our quality of life.

[ShawnPhelpsVlog]

This is really interesting. That Skin Conductance is almost a test for the accuracy of empathy. That's phenomenal. I've done a lot of videos on empathy on my channel and while I hadn't seen this particular video before, I am aware of most of what she talked about here. However, I did not realize you could actually test how in-sync two people were. That really blows my mind. 

[larissamuncy]

Good talk. Empathy does matter. We all need and want someone to see and understood us.

[angelusa]

My neurologist is the most empathic man I ever known. He is the kindest and most caring doctor I have ever had the luck and was blessed enough to meet and receive his care. He has the biggest and most spontaneous warm smile. He truly CARES for his patients and for people in general and I will be thankful to him forever. I wish the whole world could meet him and experienced what I did because they would feel good and be ready to smile even when told to have been diagnosed with a brain infection caused by an MS dug. He wrote cards by hand and his the most human and kind doctor ever:his name is Benjamin Greenberg of Southwestern Medical center in Dallas, TX and met him at Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore. Angela now back in Italy

[Mornys]

Lack of empathy is ignorance. Truly knowing what others feel is indistinguishable from feeling it yourself.

“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.” -- Socrates

[jock]

A fascinating video. As a counsellor trained here in the UK, I would say that she was advocating "active listening". Carl Rogers was way ahead of his time.

[sarahsmith]

This was an insightful way to look at empathy. Such an important topic in today's world.

[christinaweibel]

"Most people need to have their specialness reflected back in the eyes of others in order to see it themselves" so good!

[ruthannharnisch]

This is one of the most important TED talks I've ever seen. As more of us have better eye contact with our devices than we do with our fellow humans, Dr. Riess has solid research proving we were born with a need to connect. (And it is a very entertaining talk, IMHO)