Dialectical Behavior Therapy
DBT is a cognitive behavioral therapy, meaning it is a therapy that focuses on the role of cognition (e.g., thoughts and beliefs) and behaviors (e.g., actions) in the development and the treatment of these disorders. DBT includes some changes to the traditional cognitive behavioral elements of therapy in order to help specifically reduce symptoms.
Jean, also known as Tempest, is a Moderator is our Forums. She gives special focus to coping skills through DBT Skills Training. In the mission for this folder, Tempest notes that people with mental illness often feel controlled by their illness; coping techniques put the reins back in the hands of the person.
She shares, “I have four years of training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and during that time I developed and determined skills to prevent episodes and skills for mania, depression, and psychosis. I found using those skills minimized my symptoms.”
Comments
I’m a bit concerned that–once again–the storyline ends too close to normal. In that, while this woman is consistently referred to as a “bipolar mother,” by the end we are are asked to suspend belief in that diagnosis. Maybe it is not her brain but her soul that needs to heal? Maybe her grief was not pathological and she did not need meds, doctors, or the overprotective spouse? Am now also expected to just go cry a little and heal thyself? Not a great message, really. I’d rather have the character continue to struggle–not with normal grief of losing a child–but with the next to normal grief of living everyday in a struggle with the bipolar illness and its “treatments.” That would have been, for me, both more real and perhaps even more heroic (and optimistic?).
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. However, you’ve lost me a bit. You’ve left a comment on a post about diletical behavior therapy but you seem to be referencing someone’s personal story. What story are you referencing? Thanks! I just want to be sure others can join your conversation.
Kimberly