Teacher preparation is critical in cultivating good teachers, but more importantly in helping teachers learn how to meet the academic and emotional needs of preK-12 students. Teaching and training the socio-emotional trait of empathy is an important skill for pre-service teachers to develop. However, due to the multiple definitions, fields of study, and purposes of researching empathy, complications arise with measuring, researching and training empathy. This paper discusses each of the difficulties that surround the research of empathy, but also makes a strong case for the need to overcome the obstacles in order to benefit from empathy training for both preservice teachers and students alike.