Dialectical Behavior Therapy

When my life became unmanageable my psychiatrist recommended, I go to intensive outpatient (IOP) treatment that is based on Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) - 34 skills to end suffering and build a life worth living.

 

DBT foundational basics say:

Even though terrible things have happened to us, it is possible to not make it worse, and still build a life worth living.

 

This shit blew my damn mind, but I struggled to patiently absorb the skills, like I had time saying "dialectical." There were things I really liked and other things that were barriers to me learning the skills like my own priorities, perception of time, worksheets and vulnerability. I found other ways to study the skills and realized that it can be exceedingly difficult for most people to access the high level of mental health care where DBT is taught and it takes a while to learn 34 new skills. Most adults don't think we can afford the time and expense. Even when you can, the skills are best learned through practice, so we organize resources to help us practice, learn, share, and celebrate the skills and the freedom we enjoy as we build better lives.

 

My sister was simultaneously working a 12-step program and as we became healthier and practiced our programs, we found some commonalities and some complementary elements. We decided to build this website to help us stay connected to our program and share what worked for us with our sisters and fellow survivors of trauma and those of us struggling with mental health and self-love.