“Just like children, our emotions heal when they are heard and validated.” ~Jill Bolte Taylor, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey This week I had lunch with a dear friend who’s a caring, first-rate conversationalist. How does she do it? For starters, she pays attention. She follows the details of my stories and acknowledges how I feel about the experiences I’ve just shared with her. I always feel heard, uplifted, and validated in her presence. Validation is key to every good conversation — spoken, typed, or written. To validate someone doesn’t mean we must agree with (or approve of) everything they tell us. It means that we…