◼BPD patients vacillate between emotional inhibition and intense emotional reactivity.

◼Emotional validation poses different challenges, depending on what phase the patient is in.

◼When the inhibited individual, emotional expression is like the small flame of a campfire on a rainy day. The therapist must be careful not to smother it with too many observations, explanations or interpretations.

◼With the emotionally reactive patient, the challenge is to validate the emotion without escalating it. Providing opportunities for emotional expression and reflecting emotions is important.

◼Greenberg and Safran (1987) differentiated between primary and secondary emotions, with secondary emotions being a product of a chain of feelings and responses. All primary affective emotions provide adaptive motivational information.

◼Dysfunctional and maladaptive responses are interwoven with authentic or valid responses to events. Finding and amplifying these primary responses constitute the essence of emotional validation.

◼If validation is given only to calm the patient, so the patient can do the “real work” it will likely backfire..