Holding Space Quotes
This is a collection of quotes to inspire and encourage you when you’re trying to meet loved ones or parts of yourself where they are in healing journeys.
It’s one thing to give yourself grace, space, and acceptance while you’re healing. But it’s another whole can of worms when you need to support someone else in their healing. To rely on your support system requires one set of skills, but to be part of someone else’s support system requires a whole different set!
To engage in the natural give and take of healthy relationships in which you and those you love are part of a balanced support system and community together, you must be able to hold space for others and they must be able to hold space for you.
So here’s what we’ll cover:
The Skills Needed to Hold Space
Holding space is one important way we heal in relationship and is a skill that can be learned.
Being able to hold space for another or have another hold space for you involves several skills that combine to create a safe, nonjudgemental relationship, situation, or moment, where the space holder sees and hears a person fully as who they are. The space holder allows them to be whatever they need to be in that moment or feel whatever they need to feel or express. The space holder can handle it without intense emotional reactions and even if he/she/they don’t understand fully what the other person is going through, just being there and witnessing without judgment invites healing.
Holding space means being able to accept without judgement where a person is because you have complete belief that they are capable of handling what comes up for them. You believe they are not broken, have internal wisdom, and have the ability to cope and heal. You trust that.
You need to be able to actively listen, empathize, and stay emotionally regulated yourself, regardless of the emotional state of the person you’re holding space for.
So the quotes I’ve compiled are related to support, witnessing, acceptance, listening, being open to and loving without judgement. Because that’s what holding space is!
It doesn’t have to involve complete silence, but silence from the person holding the space can be powerful for the person being met.
It’s something I do as a coach all the time, and you can do it too.
But remember, use your discernment. You don’t have to always be available to hold space if you don’t have the capacity to at any given time. Sometimes you’ll be able to and other times you won’t. That’s normal. Also, it’s important to remember that you can be selective with who you hold space for. Just because you’re capable and want to help doesn’t mean it has to be for everybody.
May these quotes expand your mind and your ability to show up and meet people and parts where they’re at.
Let’s jump in. Here are all my favorite quotes that I’ve curated just for you. They’re in no particular order. And as I find more, I’ll add them to the list.
Feel free to add your favorites to the comments!
My Favorite 25 Quotes to Inspire Holding Space
“People don’t want to be rescued, they want to be witnessed.”
-The Holistic Psychologist
“You don’t need to take on anyone’s pain.”
-The Holistic Psychologist
“It’s a loving act to trust an adult’s ability to cope.”
-The Holistic Psychologist
“Trust is not built in big, sweeping moments. It’s built in tiny moments every day.”
-Brené Brown
“You can listen to another person’s opinion without having to share your own.”
-Jefferson Fisher
“Give thanks for clarity even if it’s not what you hoped for.”
-Dr. Thema Bryant
“Encouraging someone to be entirely themself is the loudest way to love them.”
-Kalen Dion
“Only people who are not happy with themselves are mean to others. Remember that.”
-@peacefulmindpeacefullfie
“Practice seeing people as they are. Not as who you want them to be.”
-The Holistic Psychologist
“The trick here is to slow things down and recognize your own discomfort in the face of somebody else’s emotions or feelings.”
-Megan Devine
“Spend more time in conversation with those who can meet you at the intersection of poetry and prayer.”
-Dr. Thema Bryant
“Surround yourself with amazing humans who light you up and make your vision so clear your fears become irrelevant.”
-Megan Smidt, Your Coach Meg
“When you gain clarity about who you are, you more easily recognize what aligns and what needs to be released.”
-Dr. Thema Bryant
“Healed people heal people.”
-Brandi Fleck
“The key to being more open-minded is to be more curious.”
-Jefferson Fisher
“There is something for you here if you’ll just show up.”
-Jefferson Fisher
“Grief requires witnessing.”
-David Kessler
“The whole wondrous human organism is more than simply the sum of its parts.”
-Dr. Gabor Maté
“Please be patient with those who have a hard time articulating how they feel.”
-Nate Postlethwait
“Many people are born into systems that forced them to be in survival mode. Years later, they’ll begin to understand that their minds and bodies have to work harder to function because of this. I can’t think of anyone who deserves understanding more than someone who knows this pain.”
-Nate Postlethwait
"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep, loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
-Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
“When you judge someone, it’s a reflection of what needs healing in you, not them. Conversely, when someone judges you, it’s a reflection of what needs healing in them, not you.”
-Brandi Fleck
“Stop trying to change people. If you’re trying to change them then you don’t love them.”
-Jay Shetty
“I think when we love someone we think we have to solve their problems…actually what we need to do is be patient, and supportive, and loving, and kind, and just be there.”
-Jay Shetty
“What love is is ‘I respect you so much for what you value; I actually respect that you are who you are because of what you value.”
-Jay Shetty
Ideas for What to Do with These Quotes
These quotes are meant to inspire and encourage you. They’re meant to give you ideas about how to be a good support for someone you love — or maybe even how to show up and hold space for yourself and parts of you that you don’t like.
So what would help you be inspired to hold space?
Perhaps you want to write them down and post sticky note reminders around your house where you’ll see them, like on your fridge or your bathroom mirror.
You can also feel free to make physical artwork out of these inspiring quotes for framing in your office or house.
Print them and clip them for a vision board.
Doodle them in a journal, sketchbook, or on your tablet.
Think about and reflect on them and how you can implement the wisdom into your life. Then make a plan for getting started with what you come up with.
Turn them into beautiful inspiring posts for your social media. If you do this, just be sure to attribute them correctly to who they originally came from.
What else can you think of?
Questions or Comments?
Feel free to let me know if you have any questions in the comments, or you can schedule a free consultation.
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Hey there!
I’m Brandi Fleck, TICC. I’m a private practice, certified trauma-informed life coach and trauma recovery coach. All genders, sexualities, and races are welcome here. I primarily serve clients via one-on-one coaching and self-paced trauma education.
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