Validating Experience
Having our experience validated as children by the important adults in our lives is an important part of self-making and the development of self-worth and self-trust. Our ability as parent's to validate our children's experience is so important that chronic in-validation is thought to be a contributor to mental illness.
In today's episode we talk about what it means to validate experience, and how it contributes to our children's developing selfhood. We'll talk about how validation contributes to a child's belief that their feelings and emotions are valid and worth paying attention to.
We'll also explore the near-enemy of validation that construes validation with condoning negative (mis)perceptions or destructive behavior - which, beyond being unhelpful, can help to reinforce a victim mentality.
Learning this distinction can be powerful.
This is one in a two-part series on validation and in-validation, and how these experiences shape our experience of self.
You'll find the shownotes here.