Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

 

Hello everyone!! I got an awesome book for my birthday this week! It’s called The Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills Workbook by McKay, Wood and Brantley.

I have been interested in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for a while but I have never done a great deal of research on the topic.  I have used the Radical Acceptance exercise from this workbook with a couple of my clients and I felt that they responded well.  I also love the idea of incorporating mindfulness training in therapy and that is a cornerstone of this theory. 

Part of the purpose of this blog is to document my journey to becoming a more authentic person and in turn a more authentic therapist.  I want to do the exercises that I would ask a client to do.  I thought this workbook would be a great place to start.  My interest in this workbook is two-fold.  First for this blog and second for a DBT group I am developing for my work.  I will be working with clients who have severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI).  Many of these clients have schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder.  Intense emotions and self-destructive behaviors often accompany these disorders.  DBT is focused on helping clients to deal with their emotions and reduce self-destructive behaviors so I feel like a DBT group could be very effective with this population. 

I started reading the workbook this evening.  I did the exercises in the intro chapter.  I did not really connect with the exercises because I do not participate in many self-destructive behaviors.  I would consider myself an emotional eater and that is one of the behaviors that is addressed in this book.  But as far as tonight’s exercises, I did not get a ton out of it.  When I put my therapist hat on while reading I did find that there are a lot of great talking points and possible activities I could do with a group.  I am excited to start developing the group curriculum. 

Before I wrap up I wanted to let you all know that I run a group page of Facebook called Being a Therapist in Training. It is a closed group but you are invited to join.  It is a place to come and discuss topics related to the process of becoming a therapist, to share triumphs and frustrations, and network with other people going through the same experiences as you.  I also have a Pinterest page where I post cool things related to therapy.  It’s new so there are not a ton of post yet.  Check it out!!

Thanks for stopping by!