THUNAIThis therapy identifies 4 key skills that are essential for reducing mental suffering. Lets see what they are!
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is about being aware of and accepting what’s happening in the present moment. This can help you learn to notice and accept your thoughts and feelings without judgement. In the context of DBT, mindfulness is broken down into “what” skills and “how” skills.
“What” skills teach you what you’re focusing on, which might be:
the present
your awareness in the present
your emotions, thoughts, and sensations
separating emotions and sensations from thoughts
“How” skills teach you how to be more mindful by:
balancing rational thoughts with emotions
using radical acceptance to learn to tolerate aspects of yourself (as long as they aren’t hurting you or others)
taking effective action
using mindfulness skills regularly
overcoming things that make mindfulness difficult, such as sleepiness, restlessness, and doubt
Distress tolerance:
Mindfulness can go a long way, but it isn’t always enough, especially in moments of crisis. That’s where distress tolerance comes in. Distress tolerance skills help you get through rough patches without turning to potentially destructive coping techniques. In times of crisis, you might use certain coping strategies to help you deal with your emotions. Some of these, like self-isolating or avoidance, don’t do much help, though they may help you temporarily feel better. Others, like self-harm, substance use, or angry outbursts, might even cause harm.
Distress tolerance skills can help you:
distract yourself until you’re calm enough to deal with the situation or emotion
self-soothe by relaxing and using your senses to feel more at peace
find ways to improve the moment despite pain or difficulty
compare coping strategies by listing pros and cons
Interpersonal effectiveness:
Intense emotions and rapid mood changes can make it hard to relate to others. Knowing how you feel and what you want is an important part of building fulfilling connections. Interpersonal effectiveness skills can help you be clear about these things. These skills combine listening skills, social skills, and assertiveness training to help you learn how to change situations while remaining true to your values.
These skills include:
objective effectiveness, or learning how to ask for what you want and take steps to get it
interpersonal effectiveness, or learning how to work through conflict and challenges in relationships
self-respect effectiveness, or building greater respect for yourself
Emotion regulation:
Sometimes you may feel like there’s no escape from your emotions. But as difficult as it might sound, it’s possible to manage them with a little help. Emotion regulation skills help you learn to deal with primary emotional reactions before they lead to a chain of distressing secondary reactions. For example, a primary emotion of anger might lead to guilt, worthlessness, shame, and even depression.
Emotion regulation skills teach you to:
recognize emotions
overcome barriers to emotions that have positive effects
reduce vulnerability
increase emotions that have positive effects
be more mindful of emotions without judging them
expose yourself to your emotions
avoid giving into emotional urges
solve problems in helpful ways
As you can see, this website and other links in the website have lots of resources that can be used for each of these skills. Take time to explore!