It’s important to meet people where they are, not where we want them to be.
There is a tendency, in many, to re-characterize people’s experiences without being asked.
You tell them you are feeling badly, they tell you all the reasons you should feel good.
You tell them you are challenged by your circumstances, they tell you what they think you can do to make things easier.
You tell them that you have a plan to do something, they offer up another plan for you.
There is a place for these offerings - particularly when requested - but often times they just make things worse.
In fact, we are more likely to arrive at the next best place on our journeys when someone actually attunes to where we are at, without making any effort to improve upon or re-frame it.
We don't need to be saved - we need to be seen. That's the healing, right there.
I hear you, I see you, I honor your choices, goes a long, long way... - Jeff Brown

As many of us have found out, silence can be violence when it is used in an effort to wound. It is one of the most potent ways to cause deep suffering. And its very effective, particularly when utilized on highly relational beings.
Because highly relational beings are built for dialogue. They are ready, willing and able to process the material that comes up between them and those they are connected with. They don’t know any other way. When they are denied that opportunity, they suffer. And not just on an emotional level- they suffer immunologically as well.
They become more at risk of disease when the bridge to expression is blocked. Because all those unsaid words and unprocessed feelings congeal inside, risking their physical well-being. If you are someone who is still carrying the remnants of unresolved material that was denied expression by silent treatment, do your best to move that material through you. If you can’t do it with the silencing aggressor, do it with a therapist, or with another friend.
Don’t allow someone else’s silence to imprison you in a museum of old pain. Express it fully, move it on through. It’s not yours for the keeping... - Jeff Brown