When Understanding is Enough: Guidelines for Empathic Listening

Friends talk to you about serious problems and they seem to expect you to do something. You have never had similar problems, and you can't think of any solutions. What do you do? You aren't a trained counselor.

There is good news. With empathy, we non-counselors can offer the kind of understanding that allows our friends to find their own answers. They need someone to understand them. We all do. And often understanding is enough, even when we can't offer solutions. Their best answers are ins...