Tag Archive for: Dr. Marsha Linehan

Open Letter to Dr. Marsha Linehan from Debbie Corso

For an assignment in the Positive Psychology course that I am taking this summer as part of my grad school program, we were asked to write a gratitude letter to someone who affected our lives. I chose Dr. Marsha Linehan, who developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and who has suffered herself as an emotionally sensitive […]

Learn Your DBT’s with a Marsha Linehan Video Marathon

Dr. Marsha Linehan of Behavioral Tech, LLC. is responsible for developing what is now known as DBT, or Dialectical Behavior Therapy.  Originally developed to help those with Borderline Personality Disorder, it is now used to treat a wide range of emotion dysregulation disorders and issues. If you don’t know Marsha’s story, [Dr. Marsha Linehan comes […]

Opposite To Emotion Action and “Justified” Emotions (DBT)

In DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) class, we are back on the skill of Opposite (to emotion) Action in the Emotion Regulation module. We use this skill when we want to reduce our experience of a certain emotion because it is not serving us in a positive way or it is not “justified.” The word “justified” […]

5 Ways to Not Act Like a Mental Patient

I love this quote by Dr. Linehan. When I’ve posted it on Facebook and Twitter in the past, it’s gotten lots of “likes,” “favorites,” and comments.  It came to mind this morning, and it made me think: What does it mean to “act” like a mental patient, and how can we change such behaviors if […]

Does Suffering Destroy You or Make You Grow? (Borderline Personality Disorder)

Those who have been following my blog for some time know who Dr. Marsha Linehan is, but for those of you who are new (welcome!), Dr. Linehan founded DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), the treatment of choice for people diagnosed with BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder).She conducted a search out of curiosity as to why some people seemed to […]

Turning The Mind and Accepting a Painful Past (DBT Mindfulness Skill)

Yesterday during DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) group, we did one of the mindfulness exercises on Dr. Marsha Linehan’s CD, “From Suffering to Freedom Through Acceptance.”  At the beginning of each class, we practice one of the 5 minute exercises, and this time it was “Turning the Mind.”During this exercise, Dr. Linehan reminded us that: “Trying […]

“Re-Wiring” our Nervous System’s Reaction to Stress and Trauma (using Dialectical Behavior Therapy)

This week in the Distress Tolerance DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) group that I attend, our therapist/group leader spoke about the interesting ways in which our nervous systems have been conditioned and thus affect our present responses and reactions to stress.I learned that our nervous systems have adapted to react to stressful situations based on past […]

Being Emotionally Sensitive in an Abrasive World (Borderline Personality Disorder)

Ok. So perhaps the world is not quite “abrasive.” At least not entirely. But to someone with Borderline Personality Disorder, it can certainly feel that way.  Dr. Marsha Linehan, founder of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for the treatment of BPD, likens those of us diagnosed with the disorder as third degree emotional burn victims. Ouch.This […]

DBT for Severe Anxiety and Panic Attacks

You think you’ve made progress. You’ve been doing well, and anxiety and panic attacks almost seem like some surreal experience from long ago. Then, in response to a particular situation (or perhaps for no apparent reason at all), you find yourself overcome and overwhelmed with anxiety and/or panic. Image Credit This was me over the past couple […]

Invalidating Environments & Borderline Personality Disorder

During DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) group today, one of my peers mentioned that out of all of the hell she experienced growing up as a child who was abused and in a very invalidating environment, the one thing she learned from her parents was that she can do ANYTHING on her own.  Our therapist said that […]