“Venting is discrete,” says Jenny Martin, a psychologist and founder of Gemstone Wellness, a trauma-informed practice in Chicago. “It has a beginning, a middle, and an end.”
But venting can also keep you stuck—not to mention, exhaust the person listening. The distinction isn’t whether you complain, get worked up, or talk for a long time. It’s whether the conversation eventually moves somewhere, and whether the other person still feels like a participant rather than an audience member trapped in the front row.
So how can you tell when blowing off steam has started straining your relationships? Therapists—who listen to people vent for a…
Read the full article at TIME.COM
