Learning How to Listen – Pain deserves acknowledgement, not repair

Learning how to listen to others’ pain without jumping in to fix it, explain it to them (!), or tell them it’s not as bad as they think it is is both an individual task and a social one.

A few things I’d love to hear from you:

What are some things you heard from others in your own grief that felt dismissive or were flat out grief-splaining?

What are some things someone did or said that felt comforting? If no one said anything helpful, what do you wish they’d say?

Bonus question: What connections have you noticed in how we treat each others’ personal grief and how we treat grief in larger circles (like grief voiced in BIPOC communities and the LGBTQA+ communities)?