Using DBT Skills in the Time of the Coronavirus

Dialectic Behavior Therapy (DBT) provides us with many excellent concepts and skills to practice and incorporate with various areas of distress and dysregulation, including the current uncertain times of living with COVID-19. The way in which this pandemic illness is spreading all over the world and is the focus of most any current conversation requires that we find a way to cope effectively. Marsha Linehan, the founder and developer of DBT, provides us with several excellent ideas about how best to manage stressful times.  Many of us Americans struggled to radically accept that this virus was in our midst and needed prompt attention. I noticed that I was initially thinking that this couldn’t be as dire as was being portrayed in the media, and I was hoping we could just continue on with primarily focusing on ways to reduce anxiety. I wanted to help my clients limit exposure to panic being promulgated on various social media sites and to focus on using good common sense (like practicing proper hygiene and staying home if sick). And I was rather willful at first about not wanting to cancel my vacation that had been carefully planned and scheduled for over a year. However, I have had to embrace willingness to recognize that I need to do what is needed and participate fully in the process of changing the way I mange my daily life. I need to fully and whole-heartedly offer teletherapy options to all of my clients (including finding a way to run DBT group on-line), cancel the s...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Anxiety Communication General Healthy Living Self-Help Coping Skills coronavirus COVID-19 Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Emotional Dysregulation Interpersonal Effectiveness Interpersonal Skills Marsha Linehan social distancing Source Type: news