Breathe in, breathe out, and now she can speak without nausea. "I'm empathic and it's impossible to lie about feelings to me. Please don't feel you have to hide anything. Let even just a little bit of that go, because I don't want anything to happen to you. Okay?"

Physical pain she can endure stoically. Emotions? Not so much. It's, for lack of a more appropriate term, one of her Achilles' heels.