How To Train An Empath

Lessons From A Professional Mindreader

Stuart nolan

Stuart Nolan is a researcher, performer, speaker and facilitator whose work lies at the intersection of empathy, illusion, and embodied intelligence.

With a unique background spanning theatrical magic, neuroscience, interactive media, and design, he has spent more than forty years exploring how we sense, influence, and connect with one another, often through techniques that seem inexplicable until they are experienced, but are grounded in psychology and physiology.

As a NESTA Fellow in Applied Magic, Stuart was an early pioneer in applying techniques from stage magic to interactive media, leadership training, healthcare, and technology innovation.

He has worked with dozens of organisations, from GoogleX and the NHS to the BBC and the Library of Congress. His Empathy Training methods - rooted in embodied, physical interaction - have been tested in hospitals, boardrooms, museums, and festivals across the world.

Stuart also designs unforgettable keynotes and immersive experiences for public and private events, incorporating skilled conjuring with original technologies, including a mind-reading robot bird, an AI that believes in magic, and a device that renders your arm invisible.

His work has been featured on BBC Click, The Guardian, Wired, Deutsche Welle, at the 2015 Venice Biennale, and he has given three TEDx talks.

COMING SOON

How to Train an Empath is a groundbreaking, practical guide to empathy, not as a personality trait or soft skill, but as a trainable, physical intelligence. Drawing from over four decades of work across neuroscience, stage magic, somatics, and design, Stuart Nolan presents a radical new method for developing embodied empathy through hands-on techniques that are simple, playful, and profoundly effective.

Empathy is often treated as either a moral ideal or a natural gift, but How to Train an Empath repositions it as a physical skill that can be honed, much like balance, rhythm, or muscle memory. At the heart of the book is a deceptively simple technique: one person follows another’s imagined movement through minute cues in posture, breath, and micro-gesture. This is not a metaphor, it is a trainable neuromuscular skill grounded in decades of research in neuroscience, performance, and psychology.

The book guides readers through a concise empathy training workshop that has been rigorously tested and refined with NHS clinicians, actors, musicians, corporate teams, dancers, athletes, and educators. It shows how embodied empathy can improve group dynamics, deepen communication, and transform conflict, even across ideological or cultural divides.

Chapters explore how this physical training intersects with dance, theatre, trauma-informed practice, leadership, and technology. Nolan also reflects candidly on his journey: from magician and sceptic to researcher and facilitator of moments that often feel magical, but are rooted in our biology. There is humour, rigour, and punkish defiance throughout: this is not another book urging people to be kind, it is a toolkit for actually learning how.

  • empathy training

  • consulting

  • performing

  • speaking

Make It Happen

  • “Stuart helped us by facilitating a workshop where we, six leading lotteries from throughout Europe, were developing new game propositions. Stuart not only kept the creative energy levels high by performing magic throughout the three days, but more importantly, he helped us in our approach to concept creation. Stuart brilliantly used the art of magic and trick creation to demonstrate alternative ways to approach innovation, which helped deliver a very successful workshop that yielded a large number of great ideas.”

    Jamie Hunt, Head of Co-lab Innovation, Camelot

  • “Stuart created and delivered the first Interactive TV training for the BBC in 2001. His knowledge of the field, insights into the future of technology, and expertise in delivering cutting-edge training were second to none. His training is still used to this day.”

    Paul Akland, BBC.

  • “We asked Stuart to run a workshop for us to share some of his techniques and approaches. He was really skilful at making the link between magic, empathy, mind-reading, and the world of health and social care in which we work.”

    Professor Stuart Eglin, Chief Executive, NHS R&D North West

  • “Entertainment at a conference might be a bit of fun but you don’t think of it as important or memorable. Months later, Stuart’s performance still has me thinking and applying the things he said to my work.”

    Rebecca, Tate Modern Audience Research

  • “Stuart was a member of trade missions to Malaysia and France. He was both insightful and charming to work with, a great skill when communicating across languages and cultures. Everything we needed and more. Highly recommended.”

    Anthony Jamieson – Trade Mission Coordinator.

  • “Honoured to be joined by the very talented @StuartNolan for our final #SpeakerSeries! Stuart is experimentally walking our audience through the science of touch, the physiology of empathy, and the latest technological innovations behind mindreading!”

    Tweet from Digital Science @digitalsci

  • “As a judge on the first two years of the Interactive Awards, Stuart helped us untangle the complexity of the interactive media world and his passion for finding and celebrating the excellence and the magic in all its forms was an inspiration.”

    BAFTA Committee

  • “Stuart was awarded a NESTA Fellowship in recognition of his worldwide reputation for innovation and his unique contribution to novel yet practical methods for fostering creativity and empathy in business. His work in Applied Magic is both practical and delightful.”

    NESTA Awardee Profile

  • Stuart was part of the grand finale of our conference day, along with Nick Hornby, Robin Ince, and laser harpist Greig Stewart. He devised a unique show around the way our minds can be tricked by lightness and darkness. The audience were amazed, but also educated, about the way our brains see the world.”

    Alessandra Caggiano, e-Luminate Cambridge Artistic Director

  • “Lots of people get described as unique when they really aren’t but Stuart is in a class of his own. Part entertainer, part scientist, part futurologist – totally fascinating!”

    Stéphane Barre, l’Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA) Paris

  • “I love the fresh perspective and thought bomb Stuart explodes in our crew. The muscle reading workshop was incredibly interactive and I watched in awe as Stuart managed to have 40 students from 28 different cultures each have their own moment of OH! NO WAY! – including myself.”

    Tash Wilcocks, Programme Leader Digital Design Management, Hyper Island.

  • “Stuart’s paper and talk on his work with Oyster Partners on the V&A’s New British Galleries was outstanding. It brought a whole new perspective to the way people experience and enjoy museums.”

    Museum Directors review.

  • “I have had the opportunity to collaborate with Stuart on two occasions, in Madrid and Lima. It’s very rare to find someone with such a marvelous background which gives him the ability to work with all kinds of people using humor and playfulness to create a joyful atmosphere. Stuart has a talent for friendship – likeable, warm, welcoming, and a great listener – he understands the way that small and personal interactions are connected to the bigger structures of a successful organization.”

    Marcos Garcí­a, Director of Medialab Prado Cultural Program

  • “Stuart’s totally engaging style and revelatory set of approaches to strategic development meant that in a matter of hours the board had a whole new take on possible futures and gained the kind of insights that can take months.”

    Teo Greenstreet, CEO, The Media Centre

  • “The team expected to be entertained and they certainly were. But they also learned valuable lessons in managing their focus and controlling the attention of the opposing team, which translate directly into skill on the field of play.”

    Dr Paul Morgan, Huddersfield Giants Vice-Chairman, RFL President (2015-16)

  • “Stuart Nolan dazzled the delegates with some slight of hand and a rather terrifying looking animal trap, reminding us of the importance of playful danger and empathy as an act of rebellion.”

    Pete Vance, Producer for Creative Producers International.

  • “The workshop with Stuart Nolan changed my perception of magic and illusion forever. Not only could I see the depth of thinking and craft involved, it also transformed my attitude to my own design practice.”

    “A wonderful experience… a real stand out moment in my education.”

    Staff and Students at The Architectural Association

  • “OMG! You blew everyone away at the performance today. Those are smart people now they’re baffled but smiling and chattering away about what you did. Awesome feelings here now. x”

    Text from Ana Nedkova, Event Organizer, NDK (National Palace of Culture) Bulgaria

  • “No way! I’m keeping my eyes glued right and I’ve no idea how he did that. What the #$*!”

    Roberta Parry, Extreme Sports Channel Launch Party Organiser.

  • “Through both his generous talk and his captivating performances at the DTI events, Stuart brought together a diverse audience of technologists, artists, and visiting British Royalty. A powerful, delicate, and hypnotic performer.”

    Event organiser. Bridging Industries and Cultures. 

  • “We ran a programme called The Artimelt Academy to stimulate creative ideas generation for all things relating to the digital sphere. There they were; a group of people, mostly strangers, yet we wanted them in there, talking, sharing and getting curious about ideas and each other – and quickly. Could we have done better than bring in Stuart to work his magic at the first session? I doubt it.”

    Nicola Stephenson, Director, The Culture Company

  • “Stuart was a Magician in Residence at Pervasive Media studio and we have worked with him many times as an artist and facillitator. He has highly original ideas – he explores everything from unusual angles, which is inspiring and educational to be around. He is a natural communicator, and from performance to text is gifted at sharing his thinking with others.”

    Clare Reddington, Creative Director and CEO of Watershed

  • “I’ve worked with Stuart a great deal and he never ceases to amaze – both with his knowledge and understanding of digital media and with his magical delivery. He brings excitement and humour to any project, which plays a big part in getting the most out of people. He’s a real joy to work with, and I always look forward to our projects together.” 

    Phil Birchenall, Projects Director, The White Room

  • “Stuart is a very exciting speaker. His talks, performance, and workshops are always challenging but always compelling. His work is truly interdisciplinary, he inhabits so many disciplinary areas that he naturally makes connections between seemingly unrelated areas in order to illuminate key ideas for the audience.”

    Jon Wardle, Director of the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice.

  • “I asked Stuart to perform at The Story because I wanted someone who really understood how to create a visceral emotional response from the audience. Most events provoke a limited range of emotions, from mild amusement to ironic detachment, but Stuart’s performance created curiosity, wonder and outright fear. This was down to his skill as a storyteller and performer, and his ability to create a whole world in the audience’s mind using just a few simple props.”

    Matt Locke, Head of Cross Platform, Channel 4

  • Dr. Stuart Nolan’s keynote and follow-up Empathy Training was perfect. Not soft skills but hard-nosed, results-focussed, challenging and effective. The impact was significant, immediate, measurable, and lasting.

    Impact assessment report.

  • I was asked to give a keynote performance at the Arts Council England No Boundaries conference in both Bristol and Manchester at the same time. I performed the world’s first simultaneous interactive impossibility for two geographically distant audiences. The performance was live streamed to 1400 screens in 46 countries.

    “Every organisation should have a magician-in-residence.” 

    “STRONGLY AGREE! I want one. In fact, I want a @StuartNolan-in-residence!” 

    - Tweets from conference audience.

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