#dbt therapy group

[quarterlifecenter]

DBT Therapy Group for Quarterlifers

An interpersonal skills group to support those who want to improve their relationships.

When you are in your twenties and thirties, there is a lot that life can throw at you. And here at QLC, we aim to give quarterlifers the skills to deal with those challenges. There are plenty of ups and downs in relationships, whether it’s relationships with your partner, your parents, your friends, or coworkers. One way to improve your relationships and cope with stress is to learn how to observe your experiences, regulate intense emotions, tolerate distress and develop effective interpersonal skills in a DBT interpersonal skills to foster relational satisfaction in a group therapy setting. In this group, you’ll get to learn new skills AND practice them with one another all with the guidance of an experienced DBT therapist.

Let’s Dive into DBT

Dialectical Behavior Therapy was developed by Marsha Linehan in the 1970’s. While it has initially used for those with borderline personality disorder, or suicidal ideation, it is now used to help anyone improve their ability to regulate intense emotions, tolerate distress and effectively navigate relationships and everyday life.

So let’s learn how to improve our relationships,

Live more in the moment,

Feel calmer during conflict,

Find healthy ways to cope with stress, and

Be more present…for ourselves and our relationships.

This DBT group teaches you the skills to be your best self in your relationships.

Weekly online group sessions with DBT therapist Dorin

An individual session with Dorin for orientation and goal setting

Skills worksheets to reinforce concepts between sessions

Opportunities to workshop new skills in the group sessions

Join The Waitlist.

This group is perfect for you if…

You want to improve your relationships

Your emotions often feel out of control

You tend to react strongly or “overreact” during conflict

You want to feel calmer in everyday life

You will be located in DC, MD or VA at the time of the session

It’s Not The Right Fit For You If…

You handle the stresses of everyday life well

You manage your emotions well during interpersonal conflict

You’re not comfortable participating in a group environment (that’s OK! We offer individual sessions as well.)

This group is led by QLC therapist Dorin Captari-Scirri, who has advanced training in DBT and has experience leading multiple DBT groups. Initially, the tasks of the group will focus on learning and using basic DBT skills of mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance and heavier focus on interpersonal skills with one another. And as group cohesion is formed, you will have the option to continue after 12 weeks as a longer-term interpersonal process group. This group is best for those who are currently in individual therapy or have been in therapy previously.

Meets Wednesdays 5:00PM – 6:15 PM Eastern time

Meetings are held through an online secure platform

Starts Summer 2022

12-week commitment required

4-8 members

$175 per session

Yes, I’m ready to improve my relationships and my life!

[eliserzilber]

GIVE

Use this skill to maintain a good relationship and reduce conflict with another person.

G - Gentle: No attacks, threats or judgments.

I - Interested: Listen to the other person.

V - Validate: Acknowledge the person’s feelings, wants, difficulties and opinions.

E - Easy Manner: Use humor and smile.

*More DBT guides here*

[featherpuppyy]

Hey I'm really curious about the experiences of those with BPD who have gone through different treatments and therapies.

TLDR: What has been the most helpful treatment for you as a person diagnosed with BPD? What hasn't been helpful?

I was diagnosed with BPD a few months ago. For more context, I am also in the process of getting an autism diagnosis, and in the past I have been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and sensory processing disorder. I have been through prolonged complex trauma throughout my life.

I was diagnosed with BPD in hospital, and once I got out of hospital, I began an outpatient group DBT program. I was really hopeful for this because I'd heard about how great it is.

However, once I began the program, I could tell this wasn't going to work. Every week, I spent more time being aware of the people around me than focusing on the content, and I always left feeling worse than when I started.

I could rarely remember the content, but when I could, it made no sense to me. I did the interpersonal affectiveness module and all of it just felt like masking to the max. None of it addressed or acknowledged the complex trauma I've been through, and it all felt like it was my fault that I'm like this, and I have to suck it up to work for other people, no matter how terrible it makes me feel.

Now I'm back in hospital again and I feel lost. I don't know what sort of treatment I'm supposed to be going for. CBT doesn't work, DBT doesn't work. I wonder if it's just because I'm autistic and DBT isn't neurodivergent friendly.

In any case, I really want to hear peoples experiences with BPD and therapy.

[borderpolardisaster]

It’s over for you bitches. RODBT, here I come.

[fox-mulder-gets-pegged]

Guess who has been officially diagnosed with 'treatment resistant depression' 😎

[animalinvestigator]

dark spore kids

[thehavenmh]

[miss-morland]

such a disarming experience to be right where you’re supposed to be

[angria]

My prof for my group therapy class also runs a DBT group for people with borderline and suicidality and self harm.

And I’m just sitting there like 🤡🤡🤡

Cool. Cool.

[sapphicslut777]

highlight of my day was when i shared about my weed sobriety in group therapy and everyone clapped for me 🥹🖤

[nekosaskia-v2]

Been trying some diy radical honesty DBT (Dialectical behavior therapy) with my wife (both BPD) where we take a xanax or 2 and then try to talk honestly about our past trauma, problems in our relationship, and sex life and all that stuff. We've only been doing it for like 2 weeks and it's honestly been life-changing. It's helped our relationship so much, especially in vocalizing things that we otherwise just bottle up until one of us snaps at the other. It's been very successful at helping us be more open and honest about how our BPD makes polyamory hard because of irrational jealousy confronting the level of severe codependence we've ended up in. And it's been super helpful in reframing and untangling my wife's sexual/emotional trauma by challenging the narrative that she formed at the time and has reinforced since, creating a scapegoat out of a guy she had a traumatic but non-abusive relationship who hurt her really badly emotionally and had some very bad experiences with taking her virginity when she was like 14, and then projecting all the trauma that happened concurrently and afterwards with getting groomed online by multiple adult men on to him because it's easier to do that to an ex who hurt you irl than an actual predator who is just an avatar sending you texts and pictures online.

[raincamp]

if i post dbt memes does it count as AC(ontribution)CEPTS

[eliserzilber]

This post is to elaborate more on my experience in the DBT group and some of the reading and tools I found most helpful to me.

The DBT group I was able to take part in was a remote group that met once a week for 16 weeks via Webex. I was very lucky to get a spot and that my Medicaid covered any cost. It was run by two social workers as part of NYU Langone's Psychiatric Center at Sunset Terrace.

The weeks were broken down based on the 4 Modules (core skill groups) of DBT: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotional Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness.

Mindfulness: This is the base of any DBT practice, and what I always had trouble with in the past. Mindfulness is a kind of self-awareness that you can use to break down your experiences and give yourself a kind of reality check. Being mindful is being present and aware of your emotions, your body, and your thought process.

There are 3 states of mind with which we experience and react to the world: Emotion Mind (acting based on emotions alone), Reasonable Mind (acting based on facts alone), and Wise Mind (a combination of the first 2 and the goal of mindfulness).

Distress Tolerence: This module focuses on short term solutions for big emotions. The skills involved in this module are called Distraction skills because their goal is to just get you through the wave of emotion, resist any harmful urges, and survive your distress long enough to talk to someone or get to other skills.

There are quite a few skills in this module I found helpful, and I'll go into more detail on them in another post. The skill I think can do the most in the moment is called ACCEPTS, an acronym used to remember what you can do to distract yourself when feelings get too intense.

Emotion Regulation: This 3rd module focuses on learning to identify your emotions, understand where they come from and what they are trying to tell you, and processing them in a healthy way.

The purpose of all emotions is evolutionary survival. Emotions spur us into action to meet our needs (when you get hangry, you know you need to eat), and communicate danger to ourselves and others. Body language and voice tone can also often communicate emotions before words do.

*Use a feeling wheel to identify your emotions and dig deeper. If you can't process them right away, use a distress tolerance skill until you are able to sit with them.

*The best skill for emotion regulation is ABC PLEASE, an acronym used to help you recognize vulnerability factors in your life and minimize them.

Interpersonal Effectiveness: This last module focuses on skills that help us communicate with others. There are skills like GIVE, which can be used to maintain good relationships with others, and FAST, which can be used to help maintain your self-respect when making a request of someone.

*There are others that I will make graphics for, stay tuned!

Attending the group and learning the skills was only part of what I found helpful on my journey toward stability. I found a book, Mindfulness for Borderline Personality Disorder, that helped break mindfulness down in great detail and very easy to follow language. The book is written specifically for BPD-havers so it's really an excellent resource. The other tool I found helpful is something my therapist suggested I get, The Game of Real Life, which is a game that you can play to learn DBT skills in an interactive and fun way. It comes with a little book that breaks every skill and practice down, Skill cards which I find to be a great go-to for recalling a skill in a moment you need it (after all, it's a whole lot of acronyms to remember), and Conflict cards that give you examples of situations you might experience, and you have to pick a skill card to practice (can be done alone but better with someone you trust to really dive into the communication and regulation skills). I've actually been carrying a few of the skill cards in my purse wherever I go, just in case I need a quick reference in a moment of distress.

I have so much more to share with anyone who's interested. I'll keep posting, making graphics, and if anyone has a specific question about any of the modules, I'll do my best to answer or help you find the information online. DBT groups are super hard to find, in extremely high demand so it's hard to get in, and usually grossly expensive due to this country's horrible healthcare system. I consider myself extremely privileged to have been able to find a great hospital when I needed it and a great group that my insurance covered. I'm here for anyone who isn't as lucky. Let's make DBT accessible and break the stigma of the BPD diagnosis!

*More DBT guides here*

[transhawks]

do you relate to toga? are you sapphic/ex-sapphic and have BPD? of course you do lol.

[lumiistar]

just got diagnosed with bpd (beautiful person disorder)

[scarletcomet]

ngl besties but i am not doing so great right now. anyone else not able to function because of constant thoughts of hurting yourself and crushing depression?