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Would you like to introduce a mindfulness practice into your daily routine? Today, Ed joins Marielle once again and they continue talking about the mindfulness skills in DBT. In today's episode, they discuss what you actually do to practice mindfulness in the DBT framework. Listen in to find out more.
In the last episode, Marielle and Ed discussed the 'what' skills, or the things that you do, in order to practice mindfulness. These are observing, describing, and participating. Today, they will be talking about the 'how' skills, which are essentially how you observe, describe, and participate, and also the qualities that you want to bring to the way that you observe, describe, and participate. Tune in now for more!
Show Highlights:
There are three 'how' skills. They are non-judgmentally, one-mindfully, and effectively. Talking about doing things non-judgmentally. How the 'how' skills deepen the practice of mindfulness when we're observing, describing, or participating. How our judgments can get in the way of our being in the moment. Learning to accept each moment like a blanket spread on the lawn can help us to observe without judgment. Why our judgments tend to create a lot of emotional suffering for us. Ed discusses the judgments and the resultant emotions that come up for him around rain. What happens when Ed is able to recognize his judgments, put them to one side, and focus on what's actually happening. Ed has found that practicing non-judgmental mindfulness around rain has decreased his reactivity towards rain. Noticing when you're judging and not judging yourself for the judging. Looking at toxic self-judgment that really causes so much emotional pain. Many judgments are based on inaccuracies. Judgments don't help to change behavior. Discernment is being able to acknowledge things that are helpful or harmful, and things that might be safe or dangerous, without judgment. In trying to be non-judgmental, we are trying to be factual. Practicing one-mindfulness is about just focusing on the thing in front of us. How focusing on one task at a time can lead to increased productivity. Being fully in the moment and practicing being one-mindful is really worth the effort. What it takes to become effective. Effectiveness is really about doing what works and playing by the rules. You need to have goals in order to be really effective. When we get stuck in a place of anger or hostility, we lose sight of the longer-term goals. Mindfulness gives us a moment to cool down some of the intensity of the emotion.Links and resources:
You can find us online at https://bayareadbtcc.com/
Ask Us a Question!We’d love to hear from you! Where are you getting stuck with your skills application? Ask us a question for the chance to have it answered on the podcast. Submit your question here.
Please note that questions, and this podcast in general, are not a substitute for individual mental health treatment.
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Would you like to learn to practice mindfulness in the DBT framework? Today, Marielle and Ed will be discussing the three 'what' skills of mindfulness. These are called 'what' skills because they are what you actually do to practice mindfulness in the DBT framework. These skills are done one at a time. Listen in today, to find out about the three things that we do to practice being in the present moment.
In DBT, there are three things we can do to practice being mindful in the moment. The first is to observe, the second is to describe what we are observing, and the third one is to participate. Each of these is a different approach to being in the present moment. In a later episode, we will explain the 'how' skills, as these are the companion to the 'what' skills because the 'how' skills are how you do the 'what' skills. Tune in today, to find out about the three different and equally beneficial ways to practice mindfulness, one moment at a time, whenever you can, in your everyday life.
Show Highlights:
Marielle explains what observing is all about. Observing is the direct notice of sensory experience. Observing is noticing what you are sensing without labeling it, reacting to it, or judging it. One of the 'how' skills is the ability to be non-judgmental. Ed explains how observing mindfully helps him to pay attention. Why observing can be tricky for most people. Judgments can cause people to want to change an experience or to want to push it away. The many benefits of observing. Being mindful allows us to be present without feeling the pressure to do more. DBT encourages you to practice being mindful for just a second if that's what you're able to do. Regular practice makes mindfulness easier. All the mindfulness skills in DBT are about bringing mindfulness and awareness to your everyday life, to help reduce reactivity, increase feelings of aliveness, and be connected to others, and decrease emotional suffering. Marielle leads us in a brief observe skill practice exercise. If your mind wanders just bring it back. The main goals of observing. The describe skill is putting words to what you observe. When you describe, you stick to the facts- just the who, what, when, and where. You leave out your interpretations or your assumptions. Interpretations can lead to assumptions. The describe skill can help you because sticking to the facts can prevent you from becoming anxious or worried. Our interpretations are usually based on our own opinions rather than facts, so our interpretation of a situation can lead us to react to the situation rather than responding to it. Building and honing the describe muscle. Marielle leads us in a brief describe skill practice exercise. Describe can really help when you're in the throes of intense emotion. Ed describes the participate skills. Some may be easy and work for you and others might not. Ed explains how the participate skill for mindfulness is the opposite of observing and describing. You can use participation to anchor yourself to the present moment. Participation allows us to become fully absorbed in whatever we are doing. Participation can allow you to dance like nobody is watching you. Participation allows you to feel a part of something, rather than feeling apart from something. Participating includes acting intuitively from your wise mind. This means that your actions are in service of your long-term goals.Links and resources:
You can find us online at https://bayareadbtcc.com/
Ask Us a Question!We’d love to hear from you! Where are you getting stuck with your skills application? Ask us a question for the chance to have it answered on the podcast. Submit your question here.
Please note that questions, and this podcast in general, are not a substitute for individual mental health treatment.
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Would you like to know more about DBT and where it all started? In today's episode, Marielle and Ed will be looking into the background and development of DBT. They will discuss dialectics and the concept of Wise Mind and give an introduction to mindfulness. Tune in to find out more.
Dialectics is about balancing two things that could be seen as opposite, yet also as true. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was created towards the end of the 1980s, by Marsha Linehan, who started out doing Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) with suicidal and self-harming clients. She later added the dialectical component to more effectively treat people experiencing intense emotional suffering.
Show Highlights:
Why Ed finds dialectics to be helpful for intense suffering. Ed defines the term 'dialectics'. Always balancing acceptance and change with dialectics. With dialectics, two opposing things can be true at the same time. Moving away from 'black-and-white' thinking. DBT has been effective in treating people with different kinds of emotional dysregulation. Wise mind is an ideal state, a work in progress, and an internal sense of doing the right thing, even if it's hard. Wise mind is the combination of our Emotion Mind and our Reasonable mind. What Emotion Mind looks like. What Reasonable Mind looks like. Wise Mind can lead us to that place of intuition or inspiration. There are many ways to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness helps us to access Wise Mind. Ed gives a mindfulness breathing exercise to help you to access Wise Mind. Mindfulness is the foundational skill of DBT. The mindfulness that is practiced in DBT isn't meditation. What is mindfulness? Depression lives in the past. Much of our distress comes from focusing on the past or the future and not on the present moment. Mindfulness allows for choice. Mindfulness is both external and internal. Dealing with some of the problems with practicing mindfulness.Resource:
Book by Marsha Linehan - DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets
Links:
You can find us online at https://bayareadbtcc.com/
Ask Us a Question!We’d love to hear from you! Where are you getting stuck with your skills application? Ask us a question for the chance to have it answered on the podcast. Submit your question here.
Please note that questions, and this podcast in general, are not a substitute for individual mental health treatment.
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Are you highly sensitive? And do you struggle with very intense emotions that sometimes overwhelm you? Today, for the first episode of The Skillful Podcast, Marielle will be talking to Ed Fowler, who works with her at the Bay Area DBT and Couples Counseling Center, providing individual DBT therapy, skills group, ACT, and EMDR for the treatment of trauma. In today's episode, Ed and Marielle will be discussing the concept of emotional dysregulation. Listen in to find out more.
Today, Ed and Marielle define emotional dysregulation and they talk about what it feels like to live with really intense emotions. They also discuss the bio-social theory of the foundational concept in DBT. Tune in today, to discover ways to reduce your emotional suffering, improve your relationships, and become more present in your life.
Show Highlights:
Sometimes, our emotions can become so overwhelming that it leads to a sense of numbness. Some people who relate to being emotional dysregulated know what they're feeling all the time, while others are just overwhelmed and go to a place of numbness. Some people describe emotional dysregulation as being highly sensitive. There are lots of positive aspects to being very sensitive emotionally. It's easy for people who feel their emotions very strongly to become overwhelmed by them. Emotional dysregulation can be felt when our emotions become overwhelming and we don't know what to do with them. It can take a really long time for the extreme emotions to go away and this can cause a lot of suffering. It can be really difficult to focus on anything or get anything done when you're feeling these extreme emotions. Mood dependent behavior means that your current mood dictates what you're doing. People with strong emotions can tend to get into patterns of procrastination or avoidance and sometimes people can feel really stuck or trapped. Life becomes chaotic if your current emotion is dictating what you're doing, so that creates a challenging life. DBT offers really effective ways to express your emotions. DBT helps people feel better in a way that they won't regret the consequences of what they've done to make themselves feel better. Extreme emotions sometimes feel as if they will never go away. Judging yourself and feeling bad about feeling bad just makes things worse. With DBT you learn that things can change and you don't have to be a victim to your strong emotions. Other people might not understand the extreme emotional experience of a child and this could lead to the child being invalidated and developing patterns that do not work for them. This can cause confusion and a number of other problems for the child. There is almost always a sense of shame associated with either imploding or exploding. Ed explains why he really enjoys doing the work in DBT. Most people don't have good language around emotion. Any kind of childhood abuse is inherently invalidating and messes with the child's sense of reality. Caregivers who invalidate a child's intense emotions regularly can actually end up reinforcing more dramatic or explosive behavior in the child. A wide range of tools can help people to regulate their intense emotions. DBT teaches us that emotions are neither good or bad- they just give us information.Links:
You can find us online at https://bayareadbtcc.com/
For more information about DBT skills: https://www.guildord.com/author/Marsha-M_Linehan
Ask Us a Question!We’d love to hear from you! Where are you getting stuck with your skills application? Ask us a question for the chance to have it answered on the podcast. Submit your question here.
Please note that questions, and this podcast in general, are not a substitute for individual mental health treatment.
