There's another way that I also like, which is to respond to someone's especially difficult journal entries with "I read the whole thing" or even just "I read this." (I added the "I read this" because once I said the first phrase to someone who then got worried she'd written way too long of a difficult entry, when that wasn't what I meant at all.) I learned it from someone who, among other things, counsels people who've survived rape, so she's good at listening and hearing, and doing so gently. It's good for, obviously, less horrible but still difficult things.
P.S. Thanks for at least the hints of good, cool news. Always good to hear.
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There's another way that I also like, which is to respond to someone's especially difficult journal entries with "I read the whole thing" or even just "I read this." (I added the "I read this" because once I said the first phrase to someone who then got worried she'd written way too long of a difficult entry, when that wasn't what I meant at all.) I learned it from someone who, among other things, counsels people who've survived rape, so she's good at listening and hearing, and doing so gently. It's good for, obviously, less horrible but still difficult things.
P.S. Thanks for at least the hints of good, cool news. Always good to hear.