How do you control empathic abilities?

As a fellow empath let me give you some guidelines. First of all you need to understand your emotions in order to recognize others. If you have problem with that you should take time off and focus on yourself and meditate.

When you achieve that level of controlling you will be able to recognize others emotions.

Second, you need to understand the principles of empathy in order to control it because while empathy is passive in time it can grow to active and you can really hurt somebody.

Now to the point. You need a lot of meditation and self awareness in order to control it.

Every empath has different ways of controlling the ability and in time you will find your technique.