Empathy Phrasing Suggestions
Suggestions of useful empathetic phrases.
Table of contents
General guidance
When talking to callers, it is important to show empathy. However, it is also important to not express neither pity nor sympathy: on a scale empathy sits neatly between the two extremes.
Pity indicates that you are making a value judgement and making assumptions about the caller’s situation.
Example: “That’s awful for you.”
Sympathy is different in that it expresses that you share the same feelings as the caller and can directly relate to what they are expressing. This takes the focus away from the caller and can also involve the volunteer too much in the caller’s situation.
Example: “I know, it’s so awful when that happens.”
Suggested phrasings
Volunteers on calls may feel that they wish to use some of these phrases. This is neither an exhaustive nor prescriptive list, but could act as a prompt for volunteers taking calls:
- ‘It sounds like you’re having a tough time at the moment…’
- ‘It sounds like this is difficult for you…’
- ‘That sounds like it is a tough situation to be in…’
- ‘This sounds hard for you to deal with…’
- ‘Sometimes it can be difficult to know how to deal with…’
- ‘I’m sorry to hear that, I can hear how upsetting this is for you…’
- ‘I can hear how challenging this is…’
- ‘I can imagine that must be really difficult to deal with…’