Is This You?

Is This You?

This is the shared the criteria that make people a good fit for my groups:

 

1)   You struggle to manage intense and extreme emotions. You are emotionally sensitive and tend to

  • React strongly to low thresholds of emotional stimuli (stressors)
  • Experience your emotions as intense with a rapid onset
  • Have difficulty getting your emotions back down to baseline

2)   You tend to manage emotions by acting or responding with extreme behavior.

This can manifest itself in a wide variety of ways that might include (but is certainly not limited to): excessive texting, withdrawing, hiding, disappearing, pretending everything is okay, self-attacking, vomiting on purpose, promiscuous sex, escalating an argument, excessive smoking or drinking, becoming coercive or controlling, avoiding, escaping, lying; doing activities to “numb out”, refrain from contact, or inhibit feeling.

3)   You generally feel a sense of shame, embarrassment, regret, or loss of self-respect in handling these experiences. You

  • Feel out of control of your behaviors
  • Don’t know what can be done to fix, change, or manage it
  • Feel alone and lost in figuring out how to address it

4)   Are looking for a confidential place where you can track, monitor, address, and get help with these problems. This includes:

  • Being among other people who share similar experiences
  • Identifying and addressing where you get “stuck”
  • Reducing the sense that you have to deal with this alone
  • Receiving specific and practical skills to try when intense experiences occur
  • Practicing new behaviors in old situations to increase self-respect
  • Finding ways to foster relationships, maintain intimacy, and enhance your quality of life

(See my cartoon elephant blog posts if you are looking for additional in depth visual examples!).

What are the groups like?

Read below to find out more about what we actually do in the groups.

 

All groups begin with a mindfulness activity to

  • Help you focus your attention
  • Calm your brain
  • Increase awareness to experiences both inside and outside the skin
  • Get in touch
  • Show up for the moment
  • Control attention
  • Self-regulate (have a means of calming oneself down when emotionally de-railed).
  • Experience your life more fully
  • Get in touch with what matters
  • Pay more attention to emotions and environment

All group members track data to assess changes over time.

This data is based on the reason you seek treatment and is developed as part of the pre-screening process for getting into the group. Tracking data will help you pay attention to changes and progress.

A syllabus is provided for all members.

  • The syllabus includes reading, online resources, and homework worksheets
  • Additional/optional assignments are provided online
  • Flexible learning environment meets the needs of newer and older members

The groups include a combination of homework review, teaching points, and discussion. Material used for the groups is psycho-educational and includes reading and handouts from

  • Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
  • Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy
  • Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
  • Functional Analytic Psychotherapy

Group members are generally professionals in the greater Boston area and don’t have contact with each other between groups (for privacy and confidentiality).

The group itself is generally a collegial and supportive environment that enables people to work on painful life situations without being alone.

 

What do I need to know to join?

One group meets weekly on Tuesday evenings in Back Bay from 4:30-6:00, and a second group meets in Back Bay on Tuesdays from 6:00-7:30. These groups are typically mixed gender adult groups.  Two face-to-face pre-screenings are required. The group is ongoing and has been in existence since 2009.

Click here to determine costs for the services. To avoid phone tag, you may e-mail me times in which you are available to speak on the phone. You may also call me.  I am typically available to return calls in the early afternoon, but if you are not available then please leave some times in which you are available. A credit card is needed to make the initial appointment.

Not ready to join a group?

Individual therapy is also available on a limited basis.