Random Acts of Kindness and DBT

Random Acts of Kindness and DBT

This year the week of February 11th through the 17th is random acts of kindness week. Each year the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation encourages others to use this week of the year to focus on kindness and complete one act of kindness each day. On their website, they have multiple examples and walkthroughs of … Read more

Multiculturally Competent Care – Supporting Black Individuals in Getting Connected to Therapy

In our increasingly diverse society, the necessity of multiculturally competent agencies cannot be stressed enough. At Cincinnati Center for DBT, we take pride in our commitment to understanding and addressing the unique needs of every individual, regardless of their background. We have even incorporated multicultural team agreements (commitments) into our weekly meetings to increase our … Read more

Counterintuivite, but Effective Techniques for Sleep

Cat sleeping under blanket

Many individuals struggle with some symptoms of insomnia, a condition that impairs functioning and exacerbates mental health difficulties. Although insomnia can be caused by a variety of medical conditions, including sleep apnea, chronic pain, and neurological disorders, primary insomnia is more common than these other conditions, whereby the sleep difficulties do not have a specific … Read more

Understanding Challenging Relationship Terms

When conflict happens in interpersonal relationships–particularly in long-term intimate relationships–emotions such as shame, anger, and sadness rise in intensity, making it more difficult to think clearly. With less cognitive bandwidth to analyze the complexity of a situation and greater activation of subcortical limbic regions of the brain, individuals tend to use cognitive heuristics in conflict, … Read more

Judgments: The Poison of Relationships 

Being non-judgmental is a cornerstone of DBT therapy. In a previous blog, I wrote about how being nonjudgmental can help people actually work towards change. You can read more about that here. In this post, I want to explore with you the damage that being judgmental can have on a relationship, and how taking a … Read more

What is DBT Pre-Treatment

So you are about to start DBT and your therapist just told you that you’re entering pre-treatment. You may be thinking, “What do you mean I’m in pre-treatment? I just started seeing you!” You are absolutely correct; you may have just started to see your therapist and are thinking about doing comprehensive DBT. So take … Read more

Improving Your Mental Wellness When Suffering from Winter Blues

Winter time blues SAD seasonal affective disorder

It’s normal for many of us to feel a little “blah” so to speak, during the winter months. Lack of sunlight, sundown coming earlier, limited outdoor activities, holidays, increase in sicknesses, and bot liking the cold temperatures are all perfect ingredients for us to get a touch of the winter blues. For those suffering from … Read more

Why It’s Hard to Stay In WiseMind

mind scrabble tiles

If you’re familiar with DBT at all, you’ve probably heard of WiseMind. This skill is all about harnessing your inner wisdom and acting effectively from that wisdom. WiseMind is bringing the left and right brain together to find the “middle path.” To understand WiseMind, it’s best to consider the 3 states of mind it proposes: … Read more

Comparing DBT PE, CPT, and EMDR

orange gradient hand empowered in fist pointing up

Which trauma treatment is best for you? There are so many different therapy treatment modalities out there nowadays and it can be easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. Plus, they all start to look like alphabet soup given the number of acronyms- DBT PE, CPT, EMDR, TF-CBT, etc.- it can all … Read more

A Breakdown on Ways to Treat Depression 

There are multiple different types of depression, such as major depressive disorder (MDD), persistent depressive disorder (PDD), and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). They’re different disorders, but they do have some similarities. Some common symptoms are feeling depressed most of the day, feelings of worthlessness, recurrent suicidal ideation, and loss of interest in activities. For MDD … Read more