Mehreen Alberts
The emphasis on validation in DBT grew out of observations in the late 1970s that many clients experienced behavioral therapy as invalidating; this led to resistance and sometimes withdrawal from therapy đ Clientsâ resistance often manifested in behaviourss that sabotaged the effectiveness of individual therapy đ These observations led to some of the core features of dialectical behaviourr therapy, including radical acceptance and validation of the clientâs current level of emotional and behavioral functioning đ This balancing of acceptance and change is important not only within individual therapeutic interactions, but within the overall treatment. The therapist uses validation strategies to help clients improve their self-acceptance. [1]
Validation requires communicating using both words as well as actions. Validation can also be communicated with non-verbal gestures such as eye contact, smile, nodding and eyebrow furrows. Once, while my husband explained himself to me, the wife learned how to just nod. Before that, he’d stumble through an explanation and she would just look at him. From the outside I could see that part of his discomfort was due to the absence of non-verbal validation. This is what I did with her. It has made all the difference. So we also want to make sure that weâre using not only our words but also our actions. Edited by Alice Murphy, Hufuf Mubarraz (Saudi Arabia), July 16, 2021 [2]
We want to be interested and awake at minimum level. Now, this sounds fairly simple but if youâve ever absolutely disagreed or been irritated with another person to the point that you didnât even want to listen, you know that achieving level 1 is a pretty magnificent accomplishment. There are times when you may want to turn your back, frown, or move away. The act of showing interest in another person’s life and being present means that you are willing to listen and give them respect. As a therapist, maybe we donât have the urge to walk out of the room but we may look at them in a way with our head cocked that looks skeptical. We may project some non-verbals out toward them that says, uhm, I donât really believe you or come on, give me a break. So at our level 1, we also want to make sure that weâre listening and weâre not checking our phone or writing something down instead of listening intently. And if youâve ever had, if youâve been a therapist and youâve ever had the flu, been sick in some way, been up with a child the night before, staying awake is not a small task. So as long as weâre doing this level 1, showing interest and being awake, weâre at least on the path to our higher levels of validation. John Hall (Bellery, India) edited the above text on January 30, 20,21 [3]
Know when you should use it, and when to put it down. As you learnt from the last video, itâs not necessary to validate everything. And while we need those validation strategies to balance out the change strategies, in the beginning, weâre going to be using a lot more validation but over time, weâre going to fade that. It has to be faded over time or else itâs like keeping the training wheels on a bicycle. Weâve got to be able to take that away so that the person ultimately learns how to validate themselves.So validation can be a comment like that makes sense or it could be the context for an entire session. Once, I spent an entire session validating patients who came into my clinic. This was the first patient I saw during my internship. Because they had messed with scheduling, the patient got very mad at the front desk staff. The fact that I was not at fault for this problem, while also claiming it wasn’t mine made the matter worse. So, I accepted it and got on with my life. After having recently received validation training, I decided to make that my day’s training. However, validation was something that I was willing to do regardless. The entire session was validated, except for the last. last 10 minutes in which the patient apologized for complaining throughout the whole time We continued to collaborate very well from that point on. So optimally, youâre not going to need to validate for an entire session because we do need to be able to use some of those change strategies but also it is possible to validate for an entire session. This page was last edited 63 days back by Griffith Willoughby (Ar Rusayfah in Jordan). [4]
The specialists agree. dialecticalbehaviortherapy.comThe last step helps you to create context around the emotion that you feel. Most people don’t stop and try to understand why they feel certain emotions. Take some time to reflect on the events in your past that led to this emotion. You don’t have to judge yourself. Instead, think about what objective facts led you to where you are now. Do not judge yourself by saying, “I was stupid and it caused me to feel angry.” Instead of blaming yourself, try to instead say “It is no surprise that I had felthad felt so angryI think that people might abandon me if I don’t answer my calls. Shevelle Richey amended this on April 5, 2021 [5]
Refer to the Article
- https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/importance-of-validation-in-dialectical-behavior-therapy-0521134
- https://psychotherapyacademy.org/dbt/validation-in-dbt-basics-and-purpose/
- https://psychotherapyacademy.org/dbt/six-levels-of-validation/
- https://psychotherapyacademy.org/dbt/3-types-of-validation-in-dbt-emotional-behavioral-and-cognitive-validation/
- https://dialecticalbehaviortherapy.com/emotion-regulation/self-validation/
