Category: Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
The Good Therapy Blog
August 24th, 2011 |
I am not formally trained in DBT. My knowledge of it coming from texts, watching trained practitioners do it and gradually incorporating it into my practice. I’m comfortable with its use due to my background and training in similar modalities and have found the skills to be valuable for those who have a difficult time with more traditional approaches.
One area where DBT has been most helpful to me is in couples and family work as a compliment to Imago... Read More
January 4th, 2011 |
It is now 3:00pm on New Year’s Eve, the day before this month’s article on creative blocks is due. I console myself with the fact that in the city to which the article must be transmitted, it is 3 hours behind the Eastern Standard time that governs my daily activities despite my best efforts to evade time’s solemn march. Therefore, if I transmit the article before 8:00pm today, I will have sent it before the deadline. I further console myself with the thought that, even if the article isn’t transmitted today, it might not matter, because after all it is New Year’s Eve and the folks... Read More
October 25th, 2010 |
What is “mindfulness?”
“Mindfulness is: paying attention, on purpose, in a particular way, in the present moment, with non-judging awareness.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn
“Mindfulness is being aware of what we’re doing while we’re doing it.”
"The root [of mindfulness] is experiencing the itch as well as the urge to scratch, and then not acting it out."
Pema Chödrön
“In mindfulness we learn to awaken from unconscious absorption in thoughts and feelings.”
Christopher Germer
The heart of mindfulness is the cultivation of attention to “things as they are,” with an... Read More
October 15th, 2010 |
Have you ever been in a relationship that challenged your assumptions and beliefs about yourself and the world around you? If so, then you know how powerful and life changing some relationships can be. Imagine then, forming a relationship with a professional who is trained to develop relationships that encourage self-exploration, insight and positive change. Carl Rogers, founder of Person Centered Psychotherapy, outlined three essential ingredients of a just such a successful therapeutic relationship– unconditional positive regard, genuineness and empathy.
Therapy can be a difficult,... Read More
October 5th, 2010 |
I often say, when explaining eating disorders, that someday I’m going to invent the Eating Disorder Board Game. I certainly don’t meant to make light of eating disorders, for they are serious conditions that cause tremendous pain to those that suffer from them and to those close to the sufferer. It’s just that I’m big on using analogies to explain the significance of eating-disordered beliefs and behaviors.
The Eating Disorder Board Game is one that I use to illustrate one of the salient issues involved in an eating disorder: arrested psychological development. Imagine a board game... Read More
August 30th, 2010 |
This phrase is relevant to so many situations in life: work that we’re not that happy with at the moment but that pays the bills, a relationship that used to be great and now not so much. In more subtle ways this feeling of ambivalence can apply to how we feel about our children (“I love you but I really need a break from you right now”), friendships and even therapy.
Ambivalence is a really tough feeling – always changing, arguments pro and con – and all this can make it difficult to know what to do next. Most often, people go with the side of ambivalence they’re feeling in... Read More
May 21st, 2009 |
Awareness is Ever-Present
To be aware is to witness. And our witnessing selves are always there when we dream, [1] in daily activities, when feeling emotions, and in states of excitement or distress. We are constantly aware, though our focus may be clear or muddled. Without awareness, there is no consciousness. But awareness is hard to see. It is ever-present, like the air we breathe.
Although always present, awareness may not be remembered. For example, we may walk around a table while moving... Read More
January 23rd, 2008 |
Dialectical behavior therapy or DBT is an offspring of cognitive behavior therapy that incorporates Eastern meditative practices. The dialectic comes from the synthesis of opposites, particularly acceptance and change that is a tenet core to the DBT philosophy. We accept ourselves as good enough, and we recognize the need for all of us change and grow. These two concepts could seem contradictory, but through the persuasive dialogue, or dialectic,... Read More
November 18th, 2007 |
GoodTherapy.org maintains a list of psychotherapy & counseling approaches for the purpose of informing people about different forms of therapy. We're currently updating this list of therapy models and we've just finished our update to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which is specialized form of therapy for people with a Borderline personality constellation. You can view the update to our section on Dialectical... Read More
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