Emotional validation is a process which involves acknowledging and accepting another individual's inner emotional experience, without necessarily agreeing with or justifying it, and possibly also communicating that acceptance.
It is a process that fosters
empathy, strengthens relationships, and helps resolve conflicts. Contrarily,
emotional invalidation occurs when an individual's emotional experience is rejected, ignored, or judged, often through words or actions indicating that their emotions are unwarranted or irrational for the situation.
Affecting factors
Emotional validation is recognized as an important tool for developing
empathy, strengthening bonds, resolving conflicts, and providing effective comfort during the grieving process. Research has shown that it helps
regulate the emotions of both the validating person and the validated person, facilitating
conflict resolution. Furthermore, emotional validation has been observed to enhance children's emotional
self-awareness
In philosophy of self, self-awareness is the experience of one's own personality or individuality. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While consciousness is being aware of one's environment and body and lifesty ...
, enabling them to express their emotions appropriately.
[Cortes, M. D. L. Á. R. (2019). Estrategias de validación emocional, repertorio conductual indispensable en el apoyo del duelo. Revista Mexicana de Enfermería Cardiológica, 27(1), 42-45]
Emotional invalidation
Emotional invalidation occurs when a person's emotional experience is rejected, ignored, or judged, through words or actions indicating that their emotions and reactions do not make sense for a particular context. It is also considered emotional invalidation to attempt to diminish the other person's emotions with phrases like "it's not so bad," "you'll be better," or "everything happens for a reason." Despite arising from the intention to provide comfort, such phrases often have the opposite effect.
Levels of validation
According to psychologist
Marsha Linehan
Marsha is a variant spelling of Marcia (given name), Marcia. Notable people with the name include:
*Marsha Ambrosius (born 1977), former member of the English band duo Floetry
*Marsha Arzberger (born 1937), Democratic politician
*Marsha Barbour, ...
, there are six levels of validation:
# Attending: Showing genuine interest in the other person.
# Clarifying: Asking questions to understand the information shared.
# Reflecting: Commenting on what the person may not have explicitly expressed about their emotions, while awaiting confirmation.
# Understanding: Attempting to comprehend the underlying causes of the emotions.
# Validating: Acknowledging and normalizing the emotions and their causes within the current context.
# Transparency: Demonstrating empathy and vulnerability by sharing personal experiences or feelings related to the situation, thereby establishing a sense of equality in the relationship.
See also
*
Transference
References
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Dispute resolution
Psychological concepts