Validation

...The absence of which can be damaging, and even cruel. When someone reaches out to you with disturbed feelings and distress, do you validate or do you dismiss? Do you accept what they are saying or do you make up excuses so as not to validate the other person's experience? The absence of validation, and the ignorance of another’s experience can be damaging, it can prevent healing, trigger deep bouts of depression and even despair. Think back to the things that have created pain in your lifetime; was there someone there along the way to validate your situation and pain? If so, now imagine if you were deprived of that validation. Are you capable of going there, or do you practice more ignorance than understanding? I think there’s a very big difference between robust optimism and thinking like a Pollyanna. It's especially damaging for a child in the absense of validation, because they have no-where to go and no-one to tell. Their only option is too bury their pain without the opportunity to confront it, which can lead them into feeling dangerously powerless. Validation is like light and water for a blooming flower, its food for the soul, light for the spirit and healer of the emotions.

The definition from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

In psychology and human communication, validation is the reciprocated communication of respect which communicates that the other's opinions are acknowledged, respected, heard, and (regardless whether or not the listener actually agrees with the content), they are being treated with genuine respect as a legitimate expression of their feelings, rather than marginalized or dismissed.