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Dealing with symptoms of shutting down and lashing out can be confusing, scary, and frustrating for both the person experiencing them, as well as for the family members. Loved ones often express feeling both worried, helpless, sad, protective AND angry, unappreciated, defensive and burnt-out.
PEACE Psychotherapy offers educational seminars for family members in order to better understand what is going on and how to respond effectively. The seminars are open to current clients’ family members, as well as people who are interested in beginning DBT therapy with PEACE Psychotherapy.
The seminars are provided in an interactive lecture format, and are offered several times a year.
More Details:
Comfort Through Understanding: The Wisdom of DBT with PEACE Psychotherapy
Cost: $175/person, $125/person for groups of 2 or more.
Location: Virtual via Zoom
If you live with someone who struggles with mental health challenges due to emotional dysregulation, you know what it’s like to see your loved one engage in destructive and self-defeating behaviours. They may shut down, lash out, be aggressive, engage in self-harm, abuse drugs, and have suicidal thoughts. You know what it’s like to swing between the extremes of love, worry and a desire to protect on the one hand, and anger, frustration and helplessness on the other.
DBT pulls together evidenced based therapies that address a variety of problems related to mental health challenges, including exposure therapy and breath work for anxiety and trauma, cognitive restructuring and behavioural activation for depression, contingency management for addictions and behavioural problems, and mindfulness practice for self awareness, attentional and impulse control.
This seminar is specifically geared towards family members to help you better understand what’s going on for your loved one and the complex dynamics in the family relationships that are keeping you all stuck. With a deeper understanding of what’s not working, and the teachings of DBT, comes the opportunity to develop a home environment that more effectively shapes healthy behaviours. We will help you to move from that sense of helplessness to the empowerment that comes from observing, changing, growing and healing.
Specifically, you will gain a better understanding of how skills training along with an in-depth analysis of the events that trigger and control problem behaviours can identify areas for growth, assist in the grieving process, enhance healthy and adaptive emotional experiencing, and shape and promote the use of skillful means in responding to life’s challenges. You will see how the persistent and pervasive experience of invalidation can undermine our efforts to understand ourselves and each other, resulting in a host of problems, such as: struggling to cope with one crisis after another, an inability to experience healthy emotions in an adaptive manner, failure to control harmful urges and behaviours, an inability to effectively seek out help and support when needed, to resolve interpersonal conflicts, to engage in goal directed behaviours, and to establish healthy boundaries in relationships.
You will learn how a dialectical approach to life can promote a sense of connectedness to those around us, improve self-esteem and interpersonal communication, reduce the tension and conflict that comes from the toxic effects of blame and defensiveness, increase self-compassion and compassion for others, and promote a sense of calm and greater ease in life.
We will also explore the impact of well-intentioned though ineffective efforts to change the problem behaviours of loved ones, and replace escalating power struggles with a sense of personal responsibility and a commitment to behavioural change. The effect of this work is an increased capacity to synthesize reasoning and emotional experiencing that allows us to avoid reacting and instead, make wise choices.
Time will be designated for attendees to ask questions about content and how it may apply specifically to their situation.
The office is close to all three subway lines: Museum Station (5 minute walk), Wellesley Station (9 minute walk) and Bay Station (9 minute walk). Street and lot parking available.