I’m sure you know as you read from my last post that I am still seeing a therapist. However I have changed who I see. I liked my first one, she was such a sweet, old(ish) lady and I actually felt like I was learning something and was on the path to a better me.
Of course we all know how much insurance is a bitch. I was getting onto Medicare and her company will not allow Medicare so I was on the search for someone new. I mentioned to my pain specialist if he knew of another good therapist that I could go to and that would take Medicare. He gave me another name so I went to visit her.
At first I wasn’t sure if I liked her; she seemed wayyyyy too happy. But not long after meeting her she told me that she is also a child therapist, which now makes sense why she is so upbeat. I have seen her a few times now and I have to say, she has grown on me! She is always trying to make me strive to be the best that I can be, and that’s great! I guess my first therapist that didn’t bother much with me had left a bad taste in my mouth and now I am leery of who will be trying to figure out what’s going on in my head.
I see her once or every other week while I also have group therapy with her and others. This group therapy is called Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). This therapy teaches a person to manage their emotions, stress, etc. It has four focus parts: “Emotion Regulation, Distress Tolerance, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Mindfulness.” I haven’t been able to do my first group session yet due to bad weather and sickness. Which is fine by me because I am nervous about the whole “group” thing. I do not like being the center of attention as well as being in a group and getting picked to answer a question. However, my therapist PROMISES me that I don’t have to talk if I don’t want to. I’m holding her to it.
The little nerd inside of me gets excited because we have weekly ‘homework.’ Surprisingly so far it has been a little difficult. I don’t know if I took shitty notes or if it is because I haven’t been working on this very long yet. We have to valuate our day and see if we participated in the four modules. Maybe it will be easier once I have my first group session and have heard other participant’s answers.
Has anyone tried this DBT form of therapy before??
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Astrid
Jan 14, 2014 @ 21:03:20
I’m glad you have started to trust your new therapist somewhat. I want to do DBT someday but currently I’m too unstable and easily overwheled for group therapy I feel (I’v enever discussed it with my therapist but group activities in general overwhelm me). Now I do schema-focused therapy which I do on an individual basis but it can also be done in group. It is focused on letting go of unhealthy patterns in your life and processing the traumas that caused them. If you don’t want ot asnwer thaat’s fine, but do you have BPD too? I do and since this is my first visit to your blog and I stumbled directly onto your post, I don’t know if you’ve said this elsewhere. I was just curious since DBT was developed for BPD.
sdloopy
Jan 19, 2014 @ 23:37:28
Sorry, I’m drawing a blank–what is BPD? I know my therapist diagnosed me with a couple things but mostly depression. Yeah, I’m not fan of groups either so will most likely not be talking. My pain doctor thought it would benefit me though so… Hmmm I have never heard of schema-focused, I’m gonna have to check it out! 🙂