Summary: Silence is a critical and natural part of SE sessions. And yet sometimes it can go on too long.

The client can sit there in silence while you explain things excessively.
You as the clinician can sit there in silence while your client talks and talks endlessly.
The two of you can sit in awkward silence not knowing what to say next after you ask "what do you notice now?"
Worst yet, sometimes in Freeze/DVC phases the silence can become terminal and reinforce the stuck state.

In this episode I look at some of the dynamics of allowing silence to go on too long: including internal critical dialogue of the practitioner, consequences of allowing too much silence and some solutions to avoid it being problematic.