New Delhi, Oct. 8 -- A 33-year-old client asked me if "too much empathy" is a bad thing. "I feel empathy is one of my biggest strengths but also a weakness. I'm wondering if it tires me out sometimes and then all I want to do is hide," she said.

This is a sentiment I often hear in therapy sessions, particularly from doctors, palliative care workers, journalists, social workers, caregivers, therapists, teachers, young mothers and from people across age groups for whom empathy is a top trait.

What the client is referring to and experiencing is "empathic distress". Researchers Tania Singer and Olga Klimecki in a 2014 paper titled Empathy and Compassion mentioned how empathy can take the form of fatigue and lead to the individual wanting to...