Humans are normally born with empathy. fMRI scans in a study published in Neuropsychologia revealed that children who watched an intentional act of pain infliction on video registered a response similar to the 
victim. The brain lit up in a manner that revealed, in addition to pain response, that moral reasoning was activated.
As I gain experience and get saturated in violent media, I notice that my tolerance for watching another person suffer has increased. That is not a positive thing to write, but it is real. I do not flinch at the sight of blood as I used to, and I occasionally enjoy watching two boxers flailing on another. I am totally aware of the pain that they are experiencing, but I accept it as their job. As a kid, I only once got into a fight. I understood later the harm the other person feels and have never been in a similar situation. Ironically, military experience trained me numbness by having me shoot at a plastic green human silhouette on a firing range. Though in a war time situation, that silhouette bent to kill me has a life story like I do and shares the same emotion.
For hosts and facilitators that deal with intense interpersonal issues, it is important to keep in mind that the individual is trained by society to be insensitive and unempathetic. I can imagine that some people might never realize that they might have grown numb. Empathy is gained or lost over time and even offered in college as course called interpersonal communication. Creativity processes such as excursions and socio-dramas are party methods to help tap break through this barrier and prepare individuals for understanding the depth of interpersonal tensions. In this way social intelligence and emotional intelligence can be taught and learned, expanding the variety of purposes for a problem solving party.
