In the year 1935, Bill Wilson (Bill W) and Dr. Robert Smith (Dr. Bob) founded the most famous program for Alcoholics that we know today as AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). Over the last century, Many other 12 step programs have been created from the AA roots including; NA (Narcotics Anonymous), OA (Overeaters Anonymous), GA (Gamblers Anonymous), ACOA (Adult Children of [...]
Radical Acceptance is one of the techniques utilized in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). I thought I could find out just what Radical Acceptance is by checking out the book entitled "Radical Acceptance" by Tara Brach, PhD (2003). Not surprisingly, this approach is about accepting ourselves. But it is not accepting just the good parts of [...]
Most people in today's society know at least one person's life who has been affected by Addiction, whether the vice was drugs & alcohol, cigarettes or other behavioral/process addictions like gambling or sex, etc. However, the invisible population that hardly anyone talks about are a group called, 'Take-the-edge-off-aholics'. Take the edge off of what? Huh? [...]
There are many versions to this tale. However, here is a summary of the one I prefer, whose author, unfortunately, is not known. Three hungry soldiers came upon a small village, but the villagers had nothing to offer them since they had a very poor harvest that year and didn’t want to share what little [...]
Now that the winter season is ending, there is much we can learn from it about factors that impact our emotional health. In the winter, the temperatures are (generally) low, there’s less sunlight and often people are required to stay inside for longer periods of time. As a result, we can sometimes find our emotions [...]
This blog post will introduce in detail simple mindfulness exercises for beginners. My previous post was an introduction to mindfulness practice for DBT clients. As mindfulness is an essential part of DBT, helping beginning clients develop their skills in performing daily simple mindfulness exercises is a priority one. In this blog, I will lead the reader [...]
The best explanation I have heard for DBT Mindfulness Practice is from DBT trainer, Randy Wolbert, who said "mindfulness is simply the state of being completely awake right now." Mindfulness has attracted significant attention in the media in the past few years. It has emphasized the benefits of mindfulness meditation. From mental health to medical benefits, to performance enhancement, [...]
Gestalt Therapy is an existential/experimental form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility and focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of their overall situation. The objective of Gestalt therapy is to enable [...]
Why Group Therapy? Often times when someone is ready to participate in therapy they want to sit individually with someone to help guide them in making improvements in their own lives. This is why it can come as a shock when a therapist might then suggest a group. It’s at that point that the therapist [...]
See Yourself in a Group? Group therapy is one of the most widely used forms of therapy to initiate and sustain change. Although individual therapy is more popular and the most frequently requested type of therapy, group therapy has substantial benefits that are often overlooked. Group Therapy Offers Peer Support Group therapy is [...]
