06/18/2026
Quick sneak peak into Therapy School: DBT & Somatic Skills for therapists. Reach out! I have 2 spots left in Friday and 1 spot in my Wednesday cohort starting in September.
DBT 6 Levels of Validaton:
Level 1: Be Present
🫶🏻 What it is: Showing up with your full, undivided attention.
🙌 How to do it: Put down the phone, look at them, nod, and actively listen without multitasking or planning your next sentence.
Level 2: Accurate Reflection
🫶🏻 What it is: Playing back exactly what they said without adding your own spin or judgment.
🙌 How to do it: Repeat or summarize their words. “So you’re saying the project guidelines changed at the last minute and now you’re stuck starting over.”
Level 3: “Mind Reading” (Articulating the Unsaid)
🫶🏻 What it is: Noticing non-verbal cues and gently guessing what they might be feeling or thinking.
🙌 How to do it: Check in based on what you see. “I notice your shoulders are super tense. Are you feeling completely overwhelmed right now?”
Level 4: Validating Based on History
🫶🏻 What it is: Showing how their reaction makes sense given their past experiences, traumas, or personality.
🙌 How to do it: Connect the dots. “Given how badly your last boss handled mistakes, it makes total sense why you’re anxious about telling this one.”
Level 5: Validating Based on Present Circumstances
🫶🏻 What it is: Acknowledging that anyone would feel this way in the current situation because it is a normal human response.
🙌 How to do it: Normalize it. “Of course you’re exhausted and frustrated. Anyone would be after getting three hours of sleep and dealing with a broken computer.”
Level 6: Radical Genuineness
🫶🏻 What it is: Treating the person as an equal peer, not a fragile patient. It is raw, authentic human-to-human connection.
🙌 How to do it: Drop the clinical veneer or “therapist voice.” Be completely real. If a situation is genuinely awful, look them in the eye and say, “Yeah, that absolutely sucks. I am so sorry.”
