Sally Kohn: I think compassion comes first, not just in the term, but that is the grounding that we need to develop first. She says she has such empathy for developing human beings and they teach college students who are going through a period of life when their coping strategies are being blown out of the water. Kohn: It's harder for us to have empathy if it's something we have no concept for what that's like. The author was surprised recently to learn about the efficacy of exposure theory.