I've come to the conclusion that I suck at emotionally supporting pretty much everyone in my life. I think it stems mostly from the fact that I'm a problem solver by nature and tend to skip over the emotional aspects of stuff and go straight to a solution. While this works great for my own problems, it apparently doesn't help me be supportive of others. I honestly don't know what to do otherwise and could use some advice.

An example. My sister is being taken advantage of by some manipulative renters. After hearing about the horror stories I tell her they need to go asap. She doesn't really respond to this, so I'm thinking maybe she just needs to vent and wants some compassion. So I switch modes and tell her I'm sorry about the situation and ask if there's anything I can do to help. After a few more minutes of talk she kinda shuts down about the whole thing and seems even more depressed.

I can't help but feel someone else could have turned the situation around. Maybe say something funny or offer some kind of support that I'm apparently missing. This seems to happen a lot with the people in my life. Any thoughts?
user
I suck at emotional support and I don't know how to be
assistant
I've come to the conclusion that I suck at emotionally supporting pretty much everyone in my life. I think it stems mostly from the fact that I'm a problem solver by nature and tend to skip over the emotional aspects of stuff and go straight to a solution. While this works great for my own problems, it apparently doesn't help me be supportive of others. I honestly don't know what to do otherwise and could use some advice.

An example. My sister is being taken advantage of by some manipulative renters. After hearing about the horror stories I tell her they need to go asap. She doesn't really respond to this, so I'm thinking maybe she just needs to vent and wants some compassion. So I switch modes and tell her I'm sorry about the situation and ask if there's anything I can do to help. After a few more minutes of talk she kinda shuts down about the whole thing and seems even more depressed.

I can't help but feel someone else could have turned the situation around. Maybe say something funny or offer some kind of support that I'm apparently missing. This seems to happen a lot with the people in my life. Any thoughts?
user
I missed Basic Emotional Support Skills for Relationships 101 somewhere in my
assistant