The 5 Types of Empaths- Which One Are You?

As you are well aware, being an empath means you’re a highly sensitive individual with the ability to sense the thoughts and feelings of people around you, and you may tend to absorb the different energies you encounter in the world.

This can leave you feeling depleted, depressed, or like you want to hide away all day to protect yourself. But you can empower yourself as an empath to claim your sensitivity as a gift, and learn how to better operate in the world through your unique perceptions of it. 

Did you know there are actually different types of empaths, each with their own specialty in how they perceive and relate to the world around them?

You may actually exhibit qualities of more than one type, but knowing which ones you most identify with can help you better understand yourself, your unique needs, and how to bring yourself back into balance whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed or over it!

We’re going to describe 5 of the main types of empaths. Which one(s) do you identify with most?

1. Emotional Empath
   
   You find it easy to connect with others emotionally, whether they’re loved ones or strangers. You can tell how they feel almost instantly, the moment you encounter them. When you scroll on social media it can be hard because you pick up on every emotion of every person you scroll by, every story you read, and you can end up feeling very depleted very quickly.
   
   This type of empath is one who absorbs the feelings of others, like a sponge. They also tend to mimic the emotional energy they pick up from others and can find it hard to stay centered within their own innate feelings and not get swayed by the moods of everyone else.
   
   This is the most common type of empath and is a broader category, and is what most people think of when they hear the word empath or self-describe themselves as one.
   
   
2. Physical Empath
   
   Do you ever feel physical symptoms and sensations from watching other people going through an experience? Like, you see someone spinning in a circle and suddenly feel dizzy, or you watch a sporting event and start to feel overexerted, or you see someone get hurt and instantly feel pain in the same area of your body.
   
   These are signs of being a physical empath, which is when you’re in tune with the physical experiences and sensations of others.
   
   This can also morph into a “medical empath” which is a medical professional who specifically can tune into illness, injury, and pain in someone else’s body and thus have a better understanding of it and be able to suggest treatment from there.
   
   This physical empathy can also happen very subtly, like picking up on other people’s tension and stress in their bodies and their overall well-being.
   
   
3. Intuitive Empath
   
   An intuitive empath is someone who can sense the thoughts and feelings of others through their intuitive senses, such as claircognizance, clairvoyance, or clairaudience.
   (Check out our 3 Ways to Hear Your Intuition article for more info on the different psychic senses.)
   
   An intuitive empath will get a sudden knowing about what someone is going through, or they’ll see a vision in their mind related to the person, or hear a very clear thought in their head about another person.
   
   They’re able to use their intuition to better understand others, and there’s an emotional distancing that’s created as they don’t always have to feel what the other person is feeling in order to understand it.
   
   This type of empathy has more boundaries, feels clearer, as you’re able to retain your own sense of yourself while also tapping into and out of other people’s energy fields.
   
   If you’re an overwhelmed emotional empath, learning how to develop and lean more on your intuition can help you feel more balanced and not get so depleted by other people’s energy.
   
   
4. Dream Empath
   
   Dream empaths may be the rarest of them all. This is when someone receives knowledge or intuitive insight about other people through their dreams. This is a subconscious knowing coming through your dream world, to give you insight and information you can use in real life!
   
   If you have very memorable and meaningful dreams, if you can recall them easily and love to analyze them and figure out what they mean, and if you’re able to lucid dream and move through the dream world with intention, you are most likely a dream empath.
   
   This can happen when you can’t access your subconscious or intuition very easily during the stress of everyday life, but it becomes much more accessible when you’re asleep, resting, and your body and mind are at ease.
   
   
5. Nature Empath
   
   A nature empath is someone who experiences a deep empathy with the natural world, and all the plants and animals in it. They have a deep resonance and connection to trees, dirt, flowers, and herbs. They can grow an excellent garden, and more than just a green thumb, it comes from an instinctual knowledge of what their plant friends need.

A nature empath is someone who experiences a deep empathy with the natural world, and all the plants and animals in it. They have a deep resonance and connection to trees, dirt, flowers, and herbs. They can grow an excellent garden, and more than just a green thumb, it comes from an instinctual knowledge of what their plant friends need.

They may have a house full of plants, crystals, shells, and other collected bits from nature. They feel the energy and resonance from things that exist in nature. They may also feel a deep connection with their pets or animals in the wild, and love to observe and be close to animals.

If you’d rather be in the garden, can’t go a day without getting outside, want to hug all the trees and cats and smell all the flowers and listen to the birds sing and watch the squirrels run around, then you, my friend, might be a nature empath.

If you derive pleasure, peace, stillness, contentment, and happiness from these things, it’s because you are literally absorbing the radiant life force energy of nature itself.

This can be a great way to help you find grounding and balance in your life, whenever you feel overwhelmed, no matter what type of empath you are!