“Crisis” is the term used in DBT, but some people find themselves struggling to identify if they are actually in “crisis” or not. Here is a way to break it down and consider the value of using this set of skills. They are actually helpful to anyone who has ever struggled with painful or difficult life situations.
Tag: Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Why is Observing and Describing Emotions so hard to do?
Join me on my YouTube channel DBT Skills with DrReneeHoekstra to identify some of the barriers to figuring out what you feel.
What are Dialectics and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills?
What is Dialectics?
Dialectics is based on the idea that two opposing concepts can both be equally true. One truth does not trump or rule out another, which undercuts the dichotomy of a “I am right you are wrong” type of relationship. A common dialectic is that you are perfect as you are (acceptance), and that in order for things to turn out differently in your life, you need to do things differently (change). One is not more true than the other, and one truth does not rule out the other truth. Sometimes people need acceptance, and sometimes people need to be challenged. Both belonging and growth are an inherent part of being in relationship.
Dialectics challenges the idea that one person is always “right”, because when you take into account diversity of perspective, other truths often arise. Being “right” often fails to take into account effective communication and the value of the relationship. Experience and emotions get ignored. A set agenda of being “right” often gets people stuck in a very rigid, dichotomous, black and white, non-dialectical stance. Dialectics are important in that sometimes you can find the one thing you have in common with your enemy instead of focusing in ways you are different. Relationships exist in context of conflicting truths, yet relationships are the glue that carries us through life.
What are the four Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills?
DBT is a complex treatment that has confusing origins in terms of how it was developed and who it was for, and has been tailored to a wide range of populations and settings. The DBT skills are universally applicable materials that help people with extreme and painful emotions, intolerable life situations, and relationships. The four skills sets are as follows:
Core Mindfulness: Mindfulness is a skill that helps people focus attention, regulate arousal, calm the brain, quiet the mind, and settle in. Being mindful is a way to steady and anchor oneself in order to observe quietly and not “react” to what is going on. It is inherent in all of the other skills in that it requires a steady, quiet, secure stance in the face of demanding life situations. It takes spaciousness to know what is going in with your body, your self-experience, your wants and desires, and your life. If you don’t pause the moment and check in with yourself, it is easier to get “caught up” in the banging and thrashing of what life throws in your direction. Mindfulness can be a spiritual practice of quiet contemplation, a way to press the pause button, and way to regroup. Core mindfulness skills taught from the DBT material include skills of observing and describing without judgement. Other traditions, spiritual practices, health care services, and therapies teach mindfulness, so it is not “new” nor is it confined to just DBT skills; its roots are actually in Zen Buddhism. There are multiple ways of accessing mindfulness including mindfulness based programs, meditation groups, trainings, and apps. DBT groups are known for implementing a mindful practice or exercise in every group, and like many spiritual traditions are simply considered part of a daily practice.
Emotion Regulation: This is a set of skills that helps people to observe and describe what they feel (you can see the overlap with mindfulness) in order to help regulate arousal, understand what they feel, and know the reasons why they feel the way they feel. Skills cover ways to reduce emotional suffering through mindfulness and opposite action, and ways to reduce vulnerability to emotional suffering. Skills are quite complex and take practice, feedback, and validation. Since emotions can be tricky, elusive, (and just plain unbearable at times) the emotion regulation content is not something you could “quick learn” and be done with it. Sometimes people are not always aware of how or what they feel in general, and there is nothing pathological about this. It is a process! Knowing oneself and knowing one’s emotions is a lifelong task not subjected to any particular type of disorder, and does not end just because you have had a first exposure to all of the skill content. That is why working together on ways to regulate arousal given varying life circumstances can best be done over time in small group settings that promote cohesion and intimacy.
Distress Tolerance: In order to regulate emotional arousal, finding ways to endure the “I-can’t-stand-it-itis” of painful and extreme emotions is critical. Surviving painful life circumstances well means doing so in a way where people do not lose self-respect, forget their values, give up what is important to them, or react in such a way that makes things worse. Sitting in the fire and not reacting is often harder than picking a fight, poking the fire, making others suffer in order to prove a point, exacerbating pain to let others know how bad things are, undermining a person where it hurts, forcing the university to prove its point, perseverating on being “right”, asking “why me”, or engaging in self-defeating or relationship destroying behaviors. Being willing to tolerate the unknown, be zen with the universe, stop fighting reality, and do what works is skillful practice. We all want things to do our way or to turn out for the best. In reality, a lot of people are suffering a great deal and need everything they can to survive well. Distress tolerance skills encompass not only change strategies (if you can do one thing make it better, why wouldn’t you?), but acceptance and willingness skills. Anyone who has successfully undergone any type of exposure treatment for anxiety knows that the benefit to tolerating anxiety is a decrease in overall anxiety. There is an inherent truth that reality is easier to face once you stop fighting it, thus freeing you up to do what is needed to effectively solve problems.
Interpersonal effectiveness: True to the concept of the dialectical philosophy of DBT, it is better to be effective than it is to be right. The interpersonal skill content encourages readers to identify objectives in situations (what exactly it is you want or don’t want), how the relationship may be impacted, and if self-respect is at stake. Balancing the three helps people to look at natural barriers and consequences of interacting, and enables readers to problem solve the cost/ benefit of ignoring each. For instance, you can ask for what you want at the expense of the relationship, or you can give into a relationship but sacrifice self-respect. The balancing act of relationships is an ongoing challenge for everyone, and some give and take is part of how people stick together, find intimacy, and keep people close. Interpersonal skills also include ways to get out of or decrease contact with toxic or unwanted relationships, set limits, say no, and to identify barriers to doing so. Direct rehearsal in terms of “what to say and how to say it” benefits group members in that they can try out and receive feedback in both verbal and non-verbal forms.
A book of all the DBT skills is available for purchase via this link: https://tinyurl.com/y2qad6sk
Here is a short video of me on YouTube with an overview of the skills: What Are the DBT Skills? DBT Skills with DrReneeHoekstra
What to do in a mental health crisis: What are your options?
The following options are adapted from Marsha Linehan’s DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets (see link under books I recommend on my website) page 10.
Solve the problem if now is a good time to solve it. Most people who avoid solving their problems end up avoiding their problems. When people avoid problems, problems tend to build up or become even worse. It is not a good feeling to know you are avoiding a problem, and solving problems is a practical and understandable path towards reducing distress. Skill building, practice, rehearsal, obtaining feedback, breaking things down into steps, evaluating the effectiveness of the steps, and challenging yourself slightly are all ways to approach problems. Emotional problems generally get us to take action or are telling us to do something about it. Consider this statement: Everything is as it should be unless or until something is done to fix or change it. In other words, don’t sit on your hands if you have some responsibly to speak up or do something about it.
If now is NOT a good time to solve it, don’t make it worse. Now may not be a good time to solve it because extreme emotions get in the way or extreme emotions make your attempts at problem solving ineffective. In this case you may need to work on regulating your moods, which can entail identifying your feelings, figuring out what the threat is or the trigger that sets you off, looking at how you interpret the incident, and coming up with a more adaptive means of interpreting and responding to the event. As Lori Gottlieb reminds us in her recent book, Maybe You Should Talk To Someone. And (of course), skills from the Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Handouts and Homework worksheets could be of assistance.
If you could do one tiny thing to make the current situation better, what might it be? Sometimes treating yourself or someone else with kindness, gently avoiding the situation for the time being, doing something to shift gears (self-soothing, exercising, activities, engaging your brain or body differently, or focusing on something or someone else for a while) can make you feel better. People who can’t do anything about a painful life situation generally want to ease their experience. Finding compassion for oneself generally generates an easier time of things, rather than critical self-blame or self-defeating behaviors.
Focusing on accepting and/ or tolerating what you can’t control. Resisting reality, throwing up one’s arms in defeat, doing something to make the situation worse, or staying miserable when there is something you could do to feel better about the situation generally don’t get people unstuck. Acceptance is a hard task and does not necessarily mean approval or passivity. It just means a willingness to bear with the uncertainty or difficulty of what you’re going through.
What You Should Know If You Have Been Diagnosed With Borderline Personality Disorder
Here is the truth: BPD, or Borderline Personality Disorder, has a historically bad rap with mental health professionals. I’m going to give you some truths to what you should know to not only think about this clearly, but to consider your options in terms of the person you want to be and the person you want to become.
BPD was historically known for “bordering” on the lines of neurotic vs. psychotic. In the olden days, clinicians who didn’t know if a person was living in the confines of “reality” could put them in a category that didn’t really fit either one. Historically neurosis has to do with issues related to anxiety, mood, and depression. Neurosis can also be related to trauma, vigilance, and paranoia about bad things re-occurring. Psychosis is related to problems hearing and seeing things that others do not see or hear, and is often associated with schizophrenia. “Borderline” has often been referred to as a category that doesn’t really fit any category, and in some cases has been the in- between of no-place.
BPD is also historically written about from an extremely pejorative and hopeless point of view. Words like “manipulative, gamey, cagey” are often used, and mental health professionals often refer to this diagnosis when talking about people that bug them, that they do not like, that get them enraged, and people that can tie up crisis hotlines and emergency rooms. In many cases, labeling someone with BPD has become a substitute for observing and describing behavior, providing useful feedback, and encouraging people to behave in ways that make them competent and more effective.
Here are some truths that you should keep in mind if a mental health professional has “informed” you that you have BPD:
Mental health diagnoses are not valid nor reliable. This means that (in terms of validity), if the same professional assessed a person over time (such as an assessment 20 years ago, 10 years ago, and 5 years ago), the likelihood that that professional would give the same person the same diagnosis is unlikely. It also means that if many different mental health professionals assessed the same person it is highly unlikely the all of them would come to the same conclusion about diagnosis. This is assuming that the only measure of giving a diagnoses is a working familiarity with the DSM-TRV, or the “psychiatric Bible” of diagnostic criteria (which is highly controversial. Be aware that homosexuality was once considered a psychiatric disorder, and now it is not). Mental health diagnosis may be more reliable and valid if the diagnosis is given based on a range of valid and reliable assessment batteries; thus if you have had some comprehensive personality assessment and testing this may be less of the case for your situation. Bear in mind that most people in the counseling profession are doing nothing more than giving you their clinical opinion; hence my point about reliability and validity. Also, there are some counseling programs that don’t cover concepts such as instruments of mental health measurement.
For some mental health professionals, telling someone they have BPD can sometimes be a communication of frustration. In a helpful world, telling someone what diagnoses they have can be useful and even helpful- it can validate if a person really is depressed or help figure out specific treatments. In the case with BPD, the “right treatment” is more complicated and may not be readily available. If your mental health professional is telling you have BPD, you might want to consider: So what? How it is it helpful or useful? Does it help people have the resources or tools for solving painful problems? Is it specific enough to describe what behavior shows up- and how behavior can be changed? Does it provide access to literature that is actually helpful? For some people, being diagnosed with BPD can only serve to increase shame and self-loathing. Literature is not always helpful and mental health professionals don’t always shore up resources for how to move forward to obtain resources and supports. Is the expectation to hide in a corner the rest of your life and not tell people who you “really” are? And do you seriously want to live this way?
There is a lot of confusion for most people around diagnosis being a cause. Diagnoses are actually descriptions of behavior, and mainly identify patterns of responding or behaviors that are typical for a person. Many people, including some mental health professionals, actually believe that they are describing reasons or causes of behaviors when giving someone a diagnoses. For instance, if the way that you behave is because you have a disorder, then someone people think they have adequately not only explained the reasons you behave the way you do, but they think they know why you behave the way you do. In terms of diagnosis, this really is not the case. The failure of the mental health system is that people think they are being helpful (“You have problems because you have a disorder”) rather than addressing causes and potential solutions for behavior change. In this case, many problems of pain are not being solved as the focus of attention is on the “correct” diagnosis, which, in my opinion, is a rather useless pursuit. It can be akin to a parent who has several children; one of them is determined to be “bad.” Instead of figuring out how to prevent problem behavior, solve problems, and tend to the child’s needs; the parent simply attributes all problem behavior to the child being “bad.”
What you can do if you have, or think you have, or someone else thinks you have BPD:
Don’t think you are permanently impaired, hopeless, or beyond help. Fear and shame keeps may people paralyzed from acting with self-respect, doing things that are meaningful, and putting oneself out there in the universe. Universally, fear and shame can prevent anyone from living a decent life. You are not an exception.
Learn to talk about yourself and your behaviors in a descriptive, non-judgmental, and matter-of-fact ways. This will make you competent, understandable, and respectable. This also means that if you go around and tell everyone you are disordered, people may treat you as fragile, incompetent, incapable, or helpless. Create and practice ways to talk about yourself outside of the realm of “mental illness.”
Pay attention to providers, mental health professionals, or family members who attribute your behavior to being “mentally ill” or “bad” or “personality disordered.” Realize that everyone has vulnerabilities and that many, many people struggle with giving accurate, helpful, and specific feedback. Consider how giving and receiving feedback is either helpful or not helpful, and don’t seek out relationships where blame seems to be an acceptable solution for reducing pain or resolving differences. Finding “fault” only works if the consequence is taking responsibility and making changes; not amplifying shame and paralysis of action.
Be aware that if you do delve into literature on BPD, you may encounter a wide range of confusing terminology that attempts to define you; which may not only be disconcerting but also downright confusing. You might encounter terms like object relations, transference, countertransference, self-objects, self-soothing self-objects, object mirroring, intrapsychic processes, or projections. Don’t get bogged down by mental health-ese. Bear in mind that some mental health professionals have a lot of trouble observing and describing behavior and giving useful feedback and sometimes hide behind their own jargon.
Find other things that provide you a sense of identity, that define you, that make you the person you are, and that you value. Consider roles you take on in society; engage in them and be proud of them. What is important to you? Why would you let a diagnoses get in your way with pursuing what is important to you? In what ways do you not “show up” because you have shame around a diagnosis? Life is bigger than the world of “mental health.”
Bear in mind that many mental health professionals are obsessed with political leaders that they believe to be personality disordered. In truth, political leaders are still political leaders, and political leaders have made great gains, influenced many, changed laws, and maintained power. Being diagnosed with something “bad” hasn’t deterred people from being politically active, advocating, having power, or being influential. There is no good reason why you have to be shamed from participating in the universe just like everyone else- people with a lot of problems still manage to be successful and competent in a myriad of different ways.
Finally, feel free to visit the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder, a nonprofit that may be more helpful than the general google search. Their website (www.borderlinepersonaltydisorder.com) has some useful non-pejorative literature, trainings, and free services for friends and family members.
What’s The Fuss About? A Super Brief History Of Behaviorism, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, And What Is Really Meant By Third Wave Behavior Therapies.
Behavior therapies have been around for a long time in helping people address problems of depression and anxiety. Here is a short article about old ways of thinking about behaviorism and what newer “third wave” therapies have to offer.
Old behavior theories are often criticized for this idea that there is no “person” on the “inside”, rather everything was a matter of stimulus and response. For instance, the presence of a stop sign (stimulus) would prompt the behavior or stopping (response), and behavior could be controlled by stimulus in the environment. Criticisms of this way of thinking included the lack of free will or choice. Behaviorism in the current way of thinking would take into account learning history, which would explain how different persons have different responses to the same situations. It also takes into consideration how the context of the situation may influence the outcome, such as snowy weather conditions or the fact that a person was busily distracted with their cell phone when coming to the intersection.
Old paradigms of thinking about behaviorism include methodological behaviorism; the gist of it being that if behavior was not observed, it did not exist and was not worthy of study. Clearly this created problems for people who want to understand emotions. Current ways of thinking of behaviorism (radical as opposed to methodological) refutes the idea that behavior has to be publicly observed in order to exist. All the “stuff” that occurs within the skin (emotions!) are alive, real, in existence, and worthy of study. The more global way of understanding behavior is that any behavior is worthy of analysis and understanding. Thus, an emotion or a highly conflictual altercation (the stuff that comes up in therapy) is clearly worthy of study.
Cognitive Behavior Therapies (CBT) often emphasized the thought process that ensues when a person reacts to a situation. People have a tendency (especially when panicked or a in a bad mood) to think the worst will happen, jump to conclusions, and make assumptions about situations and people that are not accurate. Cognitive Behavior Therapies have often emphasized the thought process/ thinking/ cognition; and often challenged persons’s perceptions of reality. This can get tricky when dealing with paranoia, post-traumatic stress, or psychotic thought processes; and can create even more problems when people are told their perceptions of reality are not, indeed, real. Focusing solely on cognitive ways to solving problems can result in trying to think one’s way out of pain and discomfort, which sort of backfires when people have problems with rumination, over-analyzing, or overthinking. That being said, CBT has been helpful to numerous people and has had a key role in reducing suffering, depression, and anxiety.
Exposure therapies are often considered under the umbrella of cognitive behavior therapies and include specific treatment for anxiety disorders. This is where a person comes into contact with a feared stimulus and behaves differently from the typical response. The goal is to increase one’s tolerance to anxiety, increase the repertoire of responding adaptively, and not let feared stimuli control one’s life. Here are some typical examples of treating anxiety through exposures: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (people that are disgusted by dirty things are encouraged to touch dirty things such that they become less bothered by dirty things over time: watch the move Dirty Filthy Love), Social Anxiety (people are encouraged to join a small group and share more openly than they otherwise would and feel less isolated and have better social abilities), and Borderline Personality Disorder (exposures help people tolerate emotions better such as practicing breathing when angry instead of ranting angrily or picking a fight).
Behavioral Activation is a treatment for depression that includes engaging people in life situations that increase natural reinforcers. In a nutshell, the behavior of depression is often one of detachment, withdrawal, inhibition of activity, loss, flatness, tearfulness, loss of focus, and sometimes aggravation. Activating behavior may include increasing pleasurable activity, engaging in meaningful behavior, doing things to build mastery and challenge oneself, managing stress and time management, and decreasing commitments that result in being overwhelmed. These are ways of managing mood that don’t include medication. (A really great book on this is Overcoming Depression One Step At A Time, which can be found under “books I recommend.”)
The newer behavior therapies or “Third Wave” therapies are often considered an offshoot of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Technically, behavior is given an emphasis over cognition. This is because behaviorists consider the thought process to be only one aspect of behavior and is not given any kind of special treatment. For political purposes (and for the general lay population) this distinction can be confusing and for some, probably not necessary. However, all behavior is open to analysis and one’s thought process is not the only focus of treatment. The idea of Third Wave therapies is a return to radical behaviorism (hence the analysis of behavior), an acknowledgement of the ways behaviorism has been both hurtful/ helpful/ misunderstood, and an expansion of how behavioral ways of thinking have been making phenomenal comebacks (and changes) on intimate, psychotherapeutic relationships.
Third Wave behavior therapies are different in that they are interested in two things: 1) Context and 2) Function. Behavior (which can include anything you want to analyze for the focus of your therapy session, such as an emotion) can happen anywhere in time and space. Current conditions (ie., the context under which behavior occurs) will influence behavior. Behavior does not happen in a vacuum and is not situationally isolated. It is fluid and subject to change. Consider how “repressed” memories “show up”, and if you more or less likely to remember repressed memories if you have a warm, caring therapist who is expressing curiosity about your past. How you remember, what you remember, and what you are willing to tell this person are all influenced by the current context. If, in your learning history, people are not to be trusted; a warm caring person asking you this personal information may result in you changing the subject or talking excessively. Learning history clearly plays a part in how a person will respond to a therapist, and again shows how the overly simplistic stimulus-response models of early behaviorism fall short.
The function of behavior has to do with the purpose it serves. The same behavior of two people can have very different purposes, show up in different settings or circumstances, and have different outcomes or consequences. The behavior of vomiting after eating (such as the case of bulimia) can serve to communicate, validate, express anger, maintain privacy, prove a point, assert independence, or prevent the discomfort of feeling full. The fact that the same behavior does different things for different people and has different consequences makes it such that two people with the same diagnosis can need very different treatments. This is partly why there is so much confusion and controversy over mental health diagnoses and their varying treatments, and why any one “template” approach doesn’t work the same way for any two people.
Third Wave Behavior therapies are also coming to terms with spirituality. While past therapies focused on making unwanted emotions/ thoughts etc. dissipate, new wave therapies are getting people to look at what they want more of, what they value, and what is important to them. Instead of saying “What do you want to avoid or get rid of in your life?” they are saying “What do you want more of in your life?” or “How are you missing out on what is important because anxiety/ depression gets in the way?” There is a renewed focus on mindfulness and acceptance and a recognition that painful thoughts and emotions are part of human existence.
We’ve worked really hard to eradicate pain and that hasn’t worked, so what can be done instead? Making peace with our discomfort by not letting anxiety and our depression control our life is done through some applied principles from Bhuddism, mindfulness, and the concept of being “zen.” Spirituality clearly has helped many people cope, come up with their “why”, and rely on powers outside of their control to help them survive emotional pain. (Ie., “Let go and let God”). The shift in Third Wave Therapies is to look towards a more expansive way of thinking and also addresses a more existential concern. You don’t have be clinically depressed to benefit from examining values, enhancing your quality of life, and growing as a person. And at least one of these treatments, ACT, is being used in non-psychotherapy settings such as organizational and business consulting. (The Association for Contextual and Behavioral Sciences is the umbrella organization of the growing interest in Third Wave Behavior therapies, and offer an annual international conference to interested parties. Click here to visit their website.)
Third Wave Behavior Therapies are generally considered to be Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), and various mindfulness and compassion based therapies. DBT was somewhat of an early forerunner in bringing acceptance based practices to psychotherapy, the “dialectic” being that of acceptance vs. change. This was somewhat in response to the fact that Cognitive Behavior Therapy, despite the multitude of people that it helped, was a therapy based solely in principles of what needed to be changed. DBT skills include prayer, radical acceptance, finding meaning, and value-based goal setting. DBT’s founder, Marsha Linehan, grew up Catholic and developed the treatment based on her exposure to Eastern thinking and Bhuddism; she has written multiple articles on spirituality.
ACT is complex and a bit tricky to explain, but here are two principles that ACT encompasses: 1) Flexibility, or a flexible repertoire of responses to life’s challenges. A metaphor I heard recently was like a car hitting a pot hole- a car with no “bounce” or “give” is like a person who has difficulty adapting to life’s bumps. The more shock absorption that a car has, the more likely the car can navigate the pot holes and not get “tied up” or “stuck”. 2) Impermanence, or “self-as-context”. This means that the self that is “you” will change over time but still be the same “you”, and this “you” can change perspective in time and space. This matters in the sense that people who are really and truly “stuck” sometimes experiences their situations and self-criticism as permanent. The self-as-context concept often entails compassion focused exercises that allow you to see yourself differently; with compassion, and as an observer who can take a step back form being “fused” with emotional pain and rigid thought patterns. Compassion based practices have capitalized on the approach and address concerns related to extreme self-hatred, shame, and the ubiquity of human suffering. (Compassion Based Therapy is also considered it’s own independent treatment).
FAP at its heart has based its tenets on the principles of Awareness, Courage, and Love. (Known as the ACL model). Clients are encouraged to consider how their relational problems outside of session also show up inside of session, and to bring these similarities under direct observation as they show up in the relationship with the therapist. Immediacy (ie., What are you feeling right now as you are telling me this?) can evoke the discomfort clients often feel when in intimate situations, and encourage clients to develop more meaningful and fulfilling relationships via the interaction with their therapist. FAP is highly evocative, and clients grow in the courage to address things in therapy they tend to avoid. Because lack of intimacy is associated with mortality, intimacy and connection is a value that shows up consistently across FAP. If you think about this treatment from a behavioral standpoint, the environmental context (how a therapist responds) can have a profound influence on generating change. If the relationship with the therapist had no influence on the client, there would be no such thing as psychotherapy. Thus the focus on the environment (ie, the behavior of the therapist) is consistent with a behavioral approach to treatment.
The best way that I think of behaviorism is that there is no permanent, fixed, or reification of private experience such as thoughts, emotions, or sensations. The fluidity and impermanence of how we experience “self” changes across time, contexts, and situations. Problems often ensue when our thoughts are treated as structures, things, or objects. Problems crop up when we think we “have”, possess, or own the experiences within our skin. In order to “not have” depression, something would have change. Consider the difference between “having” depression vs. “experiencing” oneself as depressed. Which do you think is more hopeful, temporary, and subject to change? Third Wave Behaviorism, or “radical” behaviorism is making its comeback.
Boston DBT Parent Class: Parenting the Emotionally Extreme Teen
How did this class help you? Here is the feedback from four parents who took the Spring 2015 class:
“To try and react better..To try and anticipate my daughter’s behavior triggers..try to find out what is causing the extremes and deal those triggers… By accepting emotions and where they are coming from; not to deny my emotions but they are there for a reason. To validate how I feel as well as my daughter. To be calmer. “- Parent 1
“To better understand my emotions, and that they have a purpose…To explore that purpose. Better able to identify escalation in my daughter. I’ve learned to buy time, to put some time in between responding to my daughter and others. What was most helpful was the overall impact of the course which has left me better equipped and more curious about DBT.” -Parent 2
“It made me more willing to bit my tongue, take a deep breath, and not focus on ‘fixing things’. Acceptance was important, both dealing with my own emotions and allowing for acceptance of my child’s emotions. Using mindfulness techniques to tone down my level of arousal was also important. Understanding that emotions might be valid but ineffective in some circumstances. I thought the (video content shown in class) outlined some very pragmatic examples and techniques.” -Parent 3
“To be more present with my emotion. To validate how I feel as well as my daughter. To be calmer, to think things through. Being able to listen to others’ experiences. Each class was built on each other. Have learned many skills to be more effective with my daughter.” -Parent 4
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Three things you need to know about anger: Is it mentally “healthy”?
The problem with figuring out if anger is “good” or “bad”; “healthy” or “unhealthy” doesn’t allow any opportunity to figure out what anger does, how it works, and why it makes sense.
Think of your living room couch. Is it a “good” couch or a “bad” couch? Wouldn’t it sort of depend on a bunch of different things- such as comfort, style, how old the couch is, how many people can fit on the couch, or if the couch actually suits you? Usually if a couch has a use, serves a purpose, or does what it is supposed to it is considered valuable. While it is possible that you are sick of your living room couch- perhaps you think it is time to get a new one- your couch may be necessary to hang on to for now. On the flip side, you may be very happy with your living room couch. This could make it more likeable and increase your tendency to say, “It is a good couch.”
Emotions- like anger- are like couches. Instead of thinking about anger as being “good” or “bad”, it is more important to consider the following:
How is anger serving a purpose, fulfilling a function, or doing something useful? Anger can function to communicate, get someone to back off or change behavior, or change a situation for the better. Think of it like a red flag, a signal, or a message.
Is the way in which the expression of anger is effective? In other words, is the way you communicate your anger working for you? What a person can make use of their anger by being aware of it (experiencing, tolerating, and understanding what it does for them) it increases the opportunity for effective expression (ie, another person heard, understood, and responded accordingly). On the other side, ranting or attacking often hurts relationships and doesn’t always send a clear message about expectations or desired change.
What are the relationship consequences for how the anger is being expressed? Relationships at some point might undergo rifts, misunderstandings, and irritation. The ability for people to tolerate these things in relationships sometimes help people grow, initiate important discussions, and bring about change or intimacy. On the other hand, anger that is overly intense can damage relationships, hurt other people, or add insult to injury.
When individual therapy with adolescents doesn’t work
Individual outpatient therapy with adolescents can sometimes be limited in that
1) It can fall into Question and Answer sessions-losing the spontaneity and flow of a helpful interaction
2) Adolescents have shorter attention spans, and keeping them focused on painful topics on purpose can be, well, painful!
3) Sharing personal information with an adult you don’t know, but were paired up with because your parents are making you, doesn’t always have the desired results.
4) Adolescents aren’t necessarily going to do things differently because an adult is telling them to.
Group therapy has several advantages in that
1) Its members will be able to tell your daughter if they like it, how it is helpful, and what it has done for them.
2) It is private (no one knows each other outside of the groups) and participation can be minimal (it doesn’t have to be about you all the time).
3) Group members can help each other think things through, make decisions, look at consequences, generate feedback, and put words on experiences in way that an adult provider may not be able to.
4) Talking about peer situations leads to identifying oneself in peer situations- thus what matters is sometimes brought up by someone other than yourself- or an adult, who may not have a clue.
(Hey! I’m not in high school anymore!)
Click here to see more on what group can do for your daughter.
10 Reasons why you need The Emotional Extremist’s Guide to Handling Cartoon Elephants book this holiday season
1. The Cartoon Elephant book, after being temporarily unavailable through Amazon, is now back on the market. The retail price is $26.95, but sometimes Amazon will let it go for a bit less.
2. Cartoon Elephants approach painful emotions with humor. If there is an elephant in the room in your family, this book is the starting point for approaching avoided conversations. You will recognize yourself and others in this book. There is no finger pointing or blaming.
3. Cartoon Elephants is something you can put on your coffee table. Because it is a graphic book with pictures and fun fonts, it is an easy read. The elephants will fit nicely next to big picture books about Africa and Asia.
4. The Cartoon Elephant book is being used to teach people in Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills groups about emotions. Loaded with psycho-educational material and teaching points, it cleverly accomplishes the task of making people think they are reading something fun yet giving them something valuable.
5. This book is not hard to read. There is no “plugging away” at chapters. If you want to bring something to someone’s attention in a way that is universally applicable, this book will do the trick. You don’t need to have painful emotions to appreciate elephants- you just need to have emotions.
6. If you are going to buy someone a self-help book for Christmas, this is safe bet.
Whether they believe it or not, everyone has cartoon elephants. The research proving this to be true is cited in the back of the book.
7. This book can be used and re-used, read and re-read. You can share it with family members, friends, or long lost relatives. It won’t go out of style. Emotions, as a rule, will be with you as long as you live.
8. You will get some food for thought about how and where you see yourself in relationship to your elephants. This is great for discussion groups, weekend retreats, and writing workshops.
9. This book is great for people of all ages. If you’re trying to get your kid to read something important, heavy, and deep, you can give them this book. It won’t take long to read and it is much more fun with illustrations.
10. The book will be the perfect introduction for my live series on emotions starting January 20, 2014. Of course you don’t need the book to sign up, but if you have the book you will have a better appreciation for cartoon elephants in general.