An empath is someone highly attuned to and affected by the emotions of others, such as sadness, anxiety, or joy, absorbed almost as if they were their own, sometimes even when nothing has been said aloud.

In a reading, an empathic psychic often senses a client's real emotional state quickly, even when it doesn't match what the client is saying, and that can shift the direction of an entire session. Being an empath is generally described as an intuitive skill rather than simply being a caring or perceptive person, since emotional absorption tends to happen involuntarily, which is part of why crowded or emotionally intense settings can feel overwhelming without practice managing it.