Is my targeted client empathic and is that contributing to his struggle?

This indeed is correct and you were shown this intuitively as you were talking with his mother, and is part of the struggle here, that it is made outsized by his great sensitivity and his greater exposure to the negative elements energetically than for the average person, because he, indeed, is exposing his sensors to the onslaught of negativity quite directly because this is how he operates. He wants to smell the roses and the garbage too, and he will, in life, encounter more of the latter than the former, coming from behind because of his struggles. So this will serve to perpetuate suffering in duration and intensity, both. But it cannot be helped. This is a gift that will, at times, seem like a curse when he is out of sorts and in the throes of a struggle with the darkness in one way or another. The benefit is it will serve as a keen detector of problems so he will react quickly, and when he gets stronger this will be an asset enabling him to nip things in the bud, so to speak, and address them quickly with whatever is needed to shore up inner defenses, block the intrusion, and bring things back into balance by casting out the negativity. This natural ability will be restored and strengthened as a part of the healing process, and for him will work quite well if he doesn't go looking for trouble consciously.