When your kid is silent, it’s not about them. When a child doesn’t share what’s hurting them, the problem isn’t their silence. It’s what that silence is protecting. In this exchange, Dr. Gabor Maté walks a host through a painful realization: if our kids were bullied and never told us, we wouldn’t just be sad, we’d be forced to ask why they didn’t feel safe coming to us. That answer can be hard to face. Kids go quiet when they sense that their feelings won’t be met with safety, space, or understanding. Not because they don’t love us, but because, somewhere along the way, they learned to keep their pain inside. The good news is, safety can be rebuilt. Trust grows when we meet their hard moments with presence, curiosity, and calm - showing them that even their hardest feelings are welcome with us. It makes us wonder: what helps a child feel safe enough to speak? Speaker: Dr. Gabor Maté Source: My Therapy Session with Dr. Gabor Maté | Hasan Minhaj Doesn't Know Podcast with Hasan Minhaj