The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 plus 2 plus 5 letter word MARRIAGE OF MINDS
M
A
R
R
I
A
G
E
O
F
M
I
N
D
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "True empathy" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case true empathy = marriage of minds.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.