Getting a Handle on DBT
DBT SkillsThe average person can do the skills. They're they're not that difficult. They're pretty clear. And you'd be amazed at how many people, if they try it long enough. They'll then start saying, wow, you were so right. I feel a lot happier now. I feel better or this that or the other. Because we have a million things that we can get people to practice.
And when they do practice them in general, the average person feels better. I remember back in the days when I was a graduate student in training and first seeing clients. And I think most grad students or counselors newly in training go through this imposter syndrome, where you feel like some patient has actually trusted you enough to come, sometimes even pay money to sit down in a room with you and think of you as their therapist and try to get some help. And I remember feeling like, I really don't know what to do, other than maybe being my being nice, saying I understand or giving a little validation, which probably always came naturally for me.
I really didn't know what to do. And I think the amazing thing now that I have not only been doing the DBT skills as a psychologist for so many years, but also training mental health professionals and training grad students for many years, as well as teaching them to patients, is that I think graduate students, and new trainees, and new clinicians, as well as senior clinicians, love having something concrete that they can do. So when a patient is sitting before them and they're stuck in their relationship, or they just can't focus on the work they need to do, or they just can't get themselves activated and motivated to go, there are skills that help with all of these different aspects of functioning in life. So I think it's incredibly satisfying fine to clinicians at all levels to feel like I can help my patient, not only by using myself and theory, which is really important, and of course to conceptualize the patient sitting before you. But to actually give them concrete strategies that tangible and that will give them something that will be helpful right away.
The DBT skills course is not necessarily hard to learn. It does require, however, a real commitment that you want to implement this in your life in a meaningful way. You can go through the motions and kind of learn the skills up here, but whether you're gonna learn them here and in practice, like any other skill, you need to really rehearse them, do homework, get feedback, and try to then see if that can change things. If you do it that way, with sincerity, with commitment, you will learn these skills, and they will change your life as well as your family's dynamic.