Tag Archives: dialectics
How to change the behavior of someone you care about deeply
First, acknowledge what you cannot control. When others do things that are destructive, hurtful, irritating, annoying, or have painful consequences, the acknowledgement itself is simply a way in which you are looking and seeing what is actually going on. Not … Continue reading
When life hands you lemons and you can’t make lemonade
Has anyone ever told you to simply turn a negative into a positive? Maybe people have told you to get over it, move on, keep your chin up, or let it go. At some point someone may have suggested returning … Continue reading
Parenting the adolescent, DBT, and dialectical dilemmas: From Miller, Rathus, and Linehan
In 2007, Alec Miller, Jill Rathus, and Marsha Linehan published Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Suicidal Adolescents. In the book, they outline specific dilemmas related to adolescent development. I think their work is quite clever and clearly fits the dialectical theme: … Continue reading
Are your walls keeping people in or keeping people out?
With crisis comes vulnerability. When the unexpected happens, we are often confronted with the limits of our mortality. We realize that we can be deeply affected and influenced. The walls that we build around us get shaken, questioned, or torn … Continue reading
What is mentalization-based therapy?
Last week I had the opportunity to observe a mentalization-based group therapy. Mentalization was developed by Peter Fonagy and Anthony Bateman and is the only other treatment (besides DBT) that has strong empirical (scientific) support for treating borderline personality disorder. … Continue reading
The dialectics of depression
Dialectics has to do with the concept that two seemingly inconsistent or incompatible ideas can both be true. Conflicting realities have elements of truth that can both fit together despite being conflicting. One is not more true than the other, … Continue reading
A note on dialectics and relationships
Person A is described as miserly, grumpy, short, and abrupt. We’ll say that Person A doesn’t offer any extra information when asked personal questions, rarely smiles, and almost never makes eye contact. Now, one way of responding to this situation … Continue reading