it can be difficult to get feelings out. there were many years where i was not able to speak much/verbalize what i felt, how i felt, etc.

when i could not talk/verbalize things, i started to write. it was difficult and scary at times. i recently just started going through a journal i had for 10 years a few years ago. i haven't written in a journal since 2010 or 2013 or something. but it helped a lot. sometimes i would just write and see what came out.

i found though that as other things in my life changed, i naturally became able to verbalize more, and it was less and less scary (when shared with the right person/people).

have they tried to write or are they willing to? if it is too hard to even do that, maybe they just are not able to handle the feelings yet. i used to feel too much a lot of the time (although i swear i was always depressed and numb..). it can be confusing trying to work through so much. i would definitely take it slow and start with small pieces.

also, do they want to work on anything? have a same goal or different goal?