Emotional consent, building off of the idea of physical consent, is about ensuring all involved in a lifechat feel comfortable sharing needs, boundaries, and more. This is less about a prescriptive set of rules to follow and more about an approach to interacting with another person when it comes to more emotionally intense topics.

Simply put, it’s about leaving room for, asking about, sharing, and respecting boundaries. This might mean giving people ample opportunities to opt out, asking if someone is okay talking more about something rather than assuming they are, changing the topic entirely, sharing what you aren’t comfortable discussing, not pressing someone for why they aren’t on board to delve deep into a part of themselves, etc.

In my experience, even talking about emotional consent and working to create that kind of interaction with another can lead to a lovely lifechat in and of itself.