THE EMPATH MAGA ZINE
Empathy & ART INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR SARA BENNETT By Kev Milson
The Empath's Kev Milsom spent a few hours in the beautiful Malvern Hills in Worcestershire, chatting to Professor Sara Bennett about being an Empath and how her high sensitivity manifests itself in her art.
KEVIN In just a few keywords, how would you best describe your personal experiences of empathy?
SARA Feeling instinctively when someone is in physical and / or mental pain, to the extent that it feels very real to myself.
KEVIN At what age did you begin to notice your empathic tendencies and how did they make themselves known to you?
SARA I had led a sheltered life, at the
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young age of nine though, I saw the slums of London on a train, and wept from what I was seeing. I knew about my sensitive / empathic nature from then on, however I didn't try to expand this gift, as I found it too painful to handle. At a later stage in my life, I did read a lot of psychology articles but, after reading them, I somehow felt that I was a bit unhinged - some abilities felt like I may never be able to be truly ‘me.’ It was scary.
KEVIN Within your own life experiences, how would you categorise the most positive and negative elements of being empathic?