Tomorrow I'm beginning a new chapter in my own healing journey.
After 15 years of tearing down and rebuilding my life, I'm at something of an impasse. I've become increasingly proficient at figuring out the why's of my reactions -- after the fact.
After the fact isn't good enough when "during the fact," so to speak, leads to difficulties being with other people, keeping jobs, and occasionally even having a civil discussion with my one living family member.
Which leads me to tomorrow. I'll be going to Wayne State University for a full battery of assessments prior to joining a Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) group. So far, my research (along with the positive advice of a Peer Support friend of mine who leads a DBT group) leads me to believe that this type of therapy will teach me how to respond rather than react to the many things which still seem to trigger me.
In other words, it's time for me to learn a new behavioral Standard Operating Procedure; one in which I'm in charge of what happens when I'm triggered.
This is going to be a six-month process after the group starts. I'll be posting updates on the process here periodically. Perhaps my experiences can help someone else decide whether DBT is for them, or at least provide some solid information from a first-person point of view.
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I did 1.5 years of DBT, and it helped quite a lot. They really break things down into concrete parts - how to identify what emotion you're feeling, how to identify what triggered it, a list of possible actions you can take to counter the emotion (if you don't want the emotion), and how to assess your level of distress before and after.
ReplyDeleteYou don't learn this all at once, of course, but the class should give you all the building blocks over the course of several months. All DBT courses must offer personal counselling in addition to the class, because that's how Marsha Linehan (the creator) designed it. If it's through Wayne State, it's probably kosher.
Good luck!
-Deirdre