Hi Ygrec - Just throwing in my 2 cents worth here ...

I think that a skilled T is able to empathize with the emotion, rather than the event that caused the emotion. For example, a T knows what loss feels like - they've experienced it in their own lives. So when a good T identifies that a client is feeling loss, they can truly empathize with how the client is feeling. And a good T will make no judgment as to whether the event that caused that feeling of loss is "worthy" of that feeling. We are all unique. One person might be devastated by the loss of a pet, while another might feel sad for a day or two and then be over it. It doesn't make that sense of grief any less if people tell us to "get over it - it was just a cat". Our emotion is real. I think T's build trust with us this way. It's such a good feeling to know that your T understands how you are feeling, whether they've experienced the same event or not. They understand how you feel.

Same goes for all the basic emotions like anger, frustration, elation, whatever. I think we can be better people if we empathize with the people in our lives and focus on the emotions they're feeling, rather than trying to understand the exact experience they went through. If we went through that experience ourselves, we might react differently. So to empathize with someone is to empathize with the emotion they're feeling.

This is kind of jumbled - I'm often not good at expressing myself. But I could be here all day trying to compose a lucid post, and I really should be working.