Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT) is a new evidence-based therapy for people who are overcontrolled. It stems from the idea that it is possible to have too much self-control. This is something we see a lot in people with anorexia, and can also be seen in chronic depression or autistic spectrum disorders. What is…
There has been a growing recognition that we have a tendency to live our lives on autopilot. We may find that we have driven to work without remembering every turn we have made, or we may engage in daily activities, such as cleaning our teeth, whilst thinking about what we have to do that day….
One of the skills training modules in DBT is “Interpersonal Effectiveness”. The focus of this module is to help you build and maintain healthier relationships with others, with a lot of focus on communication skills. These skills are useful for anyone, but are particularly important for people who have experienced trauma or struggle with an…
Compassionate questionning refers to questions that you can ask yourself to try to access a more compassionate view of yourself or a situation. Most people are able to be considerably more compassionate towards others than they are to themselves. It is this ability to be compassionate to others that you can try to access and…
Shame is a self-conscious emotion – in other words it is an emotion about the self. To experience shame we have to have an ability to think about ourselves through the minds of others; to think about how others might see us. Shame is not a single emotion – it is made up of various…
Compassion focused therapy (CFT) aims to help people to develop compassionate skills and to learn to apply these to themselves. By developing compassionate skills, you should find that you are able to enhance the soothing system, and to ensure that this is more in balance with the threat system and the drive system. The expectation…
Cognitive Analytic Therapy is an accredited structured psychological therapy that is usually offered an an individual therapy, but can be done as a couple or in a group. CAT is a time limited therapy and the number of sessions (16, 24 or 32) will usually be agreed at the start of treatment. Following regular therapy…
People often find that they frequently use certain ways of thinking and acting that do not achieve what they want, but yet are hard to change. Tony Ryle, who originally developed CAT as a psychological therapy, noticed three main patterns of unhelpful thinking and acting – he termed these Traps, Dilemmas and Snags. A key…
The psychotherapy file is a questionnaire used in cognitive analytic therapy to assist in identifying a person’s emotions, thinking and behaviours that are relevant to their identified aims in therapy. It provides a quick way of getting a lot of information about a person’s experiences in relationships with others, and with themselves. Traps, dilemmas and…
Below we have listed a few resources which we or the families we have worked with have found helpful in thinking about supporting a friend or family member with an eating disorder. Of course there are other resources, so do feel free to let us know if you have found any other helpful books or…
Trauma is the response to a distressing or disturbing event. The longer we live, the more inevitable it is that we will experience some kind of trauma. Probably around a third of people have experienced some kind of traumatic event during their lifetimes, and around 70% of people who meet diagnostic criteria for a recognised mental…
Dissociation is a psychological experience in which people feel disconnected from their sensory experiences (sight, hearing etc), their sense of self, or their personal history. It is usually experienced as a feeling of intense alienation or unreality, in which the person suddenly loses their sense of where they are, who they are, or what they…
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