Validation is an important skill in any healthy relationship. Through validation, you express acceptance and understanding towards others, including yourself. This can increase trust and help people in a relationship feel emotionally secure.
This DBT Validation Skills handout shares five facts about validation, such as its ability to strengthen connections and that invalidation should be avoided. Moreover, clients get to discover helpful ways to validate others and themselves.
For kids and teens needing help with their interpersonal skills, practicing the techniques in this handout can promote trust and mutual respect. Caring adults can further explain DBT validation by using diagrams and illustrations, and providing examples of validating statements kids and teens can practice saying, such as “I can see that you’re feeling upset” and “I appreciate you sharing your feelings with me.”
This handout can be combined with several of our validation-based worksheets, such as our Validating Others worksheet, 6 Levels Of Validation worksheet, or DBT Validation worksheet.
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References:
- Greville-Harris, M., Hempel, R., Karl, A., Dieppe, P., & Lynch, T. R. (2016). The power of invalidating communication: Receiving invalidating feedback predicts Threat-Related emotional, physiological, and social responses. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 35(6), 471–493. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2016.35.6.471
- Shenk, C. E., & Fruzzetti, A. E. (2011). The impact of validating and invalidating responses on emotional reactivity. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 30(2), 163–183. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2011.30.2.163
- Zielinski, M. J., & Veilleux, J. C. (2018b). The Perceived Invalidation of Emotion Scale (PIES): Development and psychometric properties of a novel measure of current emotion invalidation. Psychological Assessment, 30(11), 1454–1467. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000584
