How to Disagree Without Disconnecting with Caroline Fleck • 408

In this episode, you'll learn:

Why validation has nothing to do with agreement and why that distinction saves relationships

How to stay connected to people even when their choices make no sense to you

How to validate others while holding onto your own truth and boundaries

What if every conflict you've ever had was actually your soul trying to teach you something about unconditional love?

I know how that sounds. But stick with me here.

We throw around the word "validation" like it's some basic relationship skill. Like it's about saying "that sounds hard" when someone's having a bad day. But real validation? The kind that actually transforms relationships and heals trauma? That's something entirely different.

It's about learning to see someone so completely that they remember who they really are underneath all their defenses and patterns and pain. It's about holding space for another person's truth without abandoning your own. It's about loving someone exactly as they are while they're making choices you can't understand.

Today we're talking to Caroline Fleck, a psychologist who spent over ten years mastering validation through dialectical behavior therapy. She's worked with everyone from people in crisis to couples ready to call it quits. She's discovered that this one skill can keep relationships intact even when you're on opposite sides of everything.

Links from the episode:

Show Notes: mindlove.com/408

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