What it is
To witness a person is to perceive them and hold what you perceived. Perception without holding is just looking. Holding without perception is loyalty to an idea of someone.
One of the most useful forms is the witness as a steady presence: someone receives what you feel and holds it steady until it can be processed. A feeling can be felt, witnessed, understood, and then released. Feelings that never get witnessed tend to go underground and come back sideways.
How it shows up for me
With my kids, witnessing is often all they need: “I see you’re really angry about this.” No fixing. With adults, I’m still learning to ask for it, and to offer it without jumping to solutions.
Go next
- The unwitnessed self
- Presence
- Claim grounds, a different use of the word.