The Power of Validation: Arming Your Child Against Bullying, Peer Pressure, Addiction, Self-Harm, and Out-of-Control Emotions

Validation―recognizing and accepting your child’s thoughts and feelings, regardless of whether or not you feel that your child should be experiencing them―helps children develop a lifelong sense of self-worth. Children who are validated feel reassured that they will be accepted and loved regardless of their feelings, while children who are not validated are more vulnerable to peer pressure, bullying, and emotional and behavioral problems.

The Power of Validation is an essential resource for parents seeking practical skills for validating their child’s feelings without condoning tantrums, selfishness, or out-of-control behavior. You’ll practice communicating with your child in ways that instantly impact his or her mood and help your child develop the essential self-validating skills that set the groundwork for confidence and self-esteem in adolescence and beyond.

“...There is valuable advice here. This approach takes mindfulness, patience, and a long-term vision, but parents who are able to help their children trust their emotional landscapes will have an easier time of scaffolding to higher reasoning, in addition to more secure relationships with their youngsters. Highly recommended.”
―Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW, Rebecca Raszewski, University of Illinois Library, Chicago

Karyn D. Hall, PhD, is director and owner of the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Center in Houston, TX, and is an advisor, consultant, and trainer with Treatment Implementation Collaborative, LLC. Trained as a child psychologist, she specializes in the prevention and treatment of emotional disorders. Hall works with a dialectical behavior therapy team in Houston, TX, which generously enriches her professional endeavors and offers wisdom on a daily basis.

Melissa H. Cook, LPC, has been intensively trained in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and validation, and owns a private practice in Houston, TX. She is a renowned speaker on these topics and utilizes the principles of DBT and validation both as a therapist and a mother of three. Cook struggled with and recovered from anorexia and has since dedicated her life to helping others. She lives in Houston, TX, with her children, Stuart, David, and Caroline, and her husband, Douglas, to whom she has been married for over seventeen years.

Foreword writer Shari Y. Manning, PhD, is a founder and chief executive officer of Treatment Implementation Collaborative, LLC. She is author of Loving Someone with Borderline Personality Disorder.