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Empathy is a central notion in psychotherapy and has been the attention of much research, focusing on its importance for the provider–patient alliance and for the success of psychotherapy. Despite its importance, little effort has previously been made in order to study the details of actual sequences through which empathy is achieved. In this study drawing on the method of conversation analysis, actual interactions between therapists and their patients have been video taped and analysed in detail. The present study describes and analyses three types of empathy that can be identified in actual sequences of talk; cognitive empathy, affective empathy, and sharing empathy. These types of empathy are higher level conversational resources that build on the more basic resources, such as questions, assertions, and other types of utterances and non-verbal behaviour. When empathy is expressed, the patient should …