When It's Difficult to Validate

Validation is a skill. I don’t care what that one angry lady from Vermont

said at my DBT presentation a few years ago, validation is NOT “a way of

life.” It is a skill we can use or not.

Quick review on what validation is: Validation is a communication strategy

that involves a stubborn refusal to communicate with another person in a

way that leads to them feeling crazy, fragile, stupid, wrong, or bad.