Empathy was communicated by the facilitative leader by using nonverbal gestures like head nodding and frequent smiling at members during the sharing step of the group activity to reflect the content. As members shared their “Ideal Man/Ideal Woman” drawings, the leader appropriately gave positive feedback—verbally and nonverbal, that demonstrated empathy of the member’s chosen traits to disclose among the group. As members expressed personal characteristics of an ideal mate, the leader could have increased the level of empathy. For example, two members spoke about feeling obligated to draw an image of their significant other. With this example, the leader could have used Primary Accurate Empathy (PEA) to recognize member’s feelings.
