The Skill Based Therapies
A lot of people come to counselling looking for ‘tools’ or ‘skills’ to help manage their difficulties. What ‘skills’ really means, is a set of practices or concepts that can help inform the way you relate to and conduct your thoughts, emotions and behaviours/habits. Basically like a template or proven techniques that are generalizable enough that they can be applied to a lot of different life issues, but proven enough that we know they work for good psychological reasons. In essence some helpful guidelines and tricks that help us manage the chaos and difficulty of being human.
Skill focused therapies provide a clear, reliable foundation for you to begin your healing journey from
or
to more effectively continue it, by helping you apply the insight you already have.
These are the two evidence based cognitive and behavioral focused therapies, that most mental health practitioners + clinical studies would agree work best, and that I am trained in:
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) -
Dialectical means ‘of two’ or on a continuum of non-opposing sides. Confused? No worries. You don’t have to be able to logic your way through this word to benefit from DBT. Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, or DBT, is an incredibly practical set of self ‘regulation’ practices and techniques, based in mindfulness and covering 3 core areas of practice - emotional regulation, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness. If you are looking for help understanding and managing your emotions, knowing what to do what intense emotional pain comes on, or would like tools for better navigating your relationships, then this is a great place to start. DBT can be integrated into more exploratory, identity or relational focused counselling approaches, or used as a stand alone approach for more structure and practice.
I use DBT in a compassion, strength focused way, ensuring that any changes introduced make sense and align with your treatment goals before proceeding.
DBT is effective as an anxiety therapy, supportive for helping stabilize and improve from mood based disorders such as depression, and bipolar disorder, and is the only proven treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). It’s also incredibly useful for anyone, regardless of diagnosis, who would like to better manage their emotions!
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) -
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, or CBT, is the original ‘skills’ focused therapy. It focuses on the connections between our thoughts, emotions and behaviour and how each influence each other. More importantly CBT clarifies how we can influence our emotions and habits by knowing and paying more attention to what we are thinking and how this affects what we feel and the choices we make. CBT offers a well established set of practices and tools for helping identify and clarify thought patterns that are negatively affecting how you feel about yourself, others and steps for how to consciously revise thought patterns that lead to mood states and behaviours that aren’t supporting your well being, and that are involved in depression and anxiety.
CBT is great for anyone who hasn’t done therapy before, or is just starting a practice of noticing their patterns and habits. CBT is clinically evidenced as an effective therapy for anxiety, depression, self esteem, and motivation struggles. I use it regularly with clients who are prone to perfectionism, self-blame, self-criticism or other self talk based struggles!
If you have a clear goal of what you want to get out of therapy, these can help you achieve that.
No goal, no fear! These can help you manage your day to day life more effectively, so you can actually have the space and clarity to pay attention to what you want for your life. Whenever you get there.
