Authors Archive

Moving to the country, going to meet a lot of people…

I have lived in some pretty small and/or remote places in my adult life. I did a couple of seasons at Lake Agnes Tea House in Lake Louise, Alberta, hauling water from a pristine glacier fed lake, having my groceries delivered via horseback, and navigating evenings with candles and headlamps. One year, I was tasked […]

Judgy Face

Lesson 14 in RO-DBT mindfulness teaches awareness of harsh judgments and encourages us to notice our judgmental social signal towards self and others. It asks questions like, “How do I express my harsh judgmental thoughts about others? For example, do I exhibit a flat face, scowl, look away, laugh or chuckle, seek agreement from others, […]

Rules!

If you are a RO therapist or client, you will know that the therapy introduces 5 Behavioural Themes in individual sessions. The 5 themes are: Inhibited Emotional Expression Overly Cautious and Hyper-Vigilant Rigid and Rule Governed Behaviour Aloof and Distant Relationships Envy and Bitterness The purpose of introducing these themes is to gather social signalling […]

Kindness First and Foremost

I have been giving some extra thoughts these days to Lesson 17 from the Skills Manual. As I reflected in my last blog, British Columbia has a provincial health officer whose motto is “Be kind, be calm, be safe.” Everyone in my province has been reminded of this daily though COVID updates, but also through […]

Say Goodbye to Paper Diary Cards for RO DBT

Whether you are new to Radically Open DBT (RO DBT), in the middle of therapy, or you’ve been through the whole program, you know that diary cards are an essential part of RO DBT. They help track our behavior targets, including social signaling. One of the challenging parts of diary cards is that paper copies […]

Compulsive Striving in a time of COVID

Well, as it turns out, I have a super fan of my blog postings! Her name is Judy, and yes, she is my mom (Hi mom!). She mentioned in passing that she had not seen a blog post in a while on this site. I told her that since the pandemic hit the globe, not […]

Sneaky Work Strikes Again!

As a card carrying OC, I find reward in accomplishing tasks. Vacations and time off are a challenge. I’ve written book chapters in Hawaii and the outer banks of North Carolina, staring at my computer screen while breathtakingly beautiful beaches are just a few feet away. I’ve answered mundane emails while in Japan, and spent […]

Sorry, Not Sorry

As the pandemic began and quarantine started, I noticed feeling more on edge and being easily irritated by anything out of place in my house. I was working a lot as many of my clients were struggling with the adjustment and trying to figure out technology issues of doing therapy online. I was also processing […]

Busting the Loneliness Cycle

Here’s a great blog by Hope Arnold: Busting the Loneliness Cycle. “Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RODBT), thinks that the cure for loneliness is to build tribe, community, and connection,[…] So how do you start building a friend?” Read more here: https://www.rodbtdenver.com/post/busting-the-loneliness-cycle About the Author: Hope Arnold, LCSW, MA Hope Arnold is the owner of RO […]

The Unhelpful Helper

As we know maladaptive social signals are behaviors that can be witnessed by others in such a way that they keep us out of the tribe. In RO DBT social signals are posited as a unique and powerful mechanism of change. Social signaling targets are often habits, something we have done for a long time […]

Using Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO DBT) To Treat Problems Of Overcontrol

Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO DBT), developed by Dr. Thomas R. Lynch, is a new treatment that has been developed and tested to address excessive self-control, or overcontrol [1]. RO DBT is a transdiagnostic treatment indicated for patients with diagnoses of chronic depression, treatment-resistant anxiety disorders, anorexia nervosa, autism spectrum disorders, and Cluster A and C personality […]

The Secret Key

I want to get out of here. I was at a book event that included one of my favorite authors. I had been invited by good friends of mine and I was thrilled at the prospect of seeing Glennon Doyle Melton in person. The evening, however, was going much longer than I had anticipated and […]