One life on this earth is all we get, whether it is enough or not enough, and the obvious conclusion would seem to be that at the very least we are fools if we do not live it as fully and bravely and beautifully as we can.
-Frederich Buechner
There are many reasons to begin therapy. I do think for most people the core reasoning is that they want more from life and for themselves. And even if they may not be able to articulate it, I find that along the journey, it is something they move towards. There are many things within and without our jurisdiction that may thwart this desire and cause us to feel stuck.
Often times in order to do the deeper work of healing, a client may need to grow their internal resources by adding more to their toolkit. For this, I have enjoyed referring clients to Jennifer Wu, LCSW to gain the skills to help them become unstuck and bring those skills into our sessions to do deeper work. It’s been a very rewarding collaboration and our clients have benefitted greatly.
Jennifer specializes in Dialetical Behavior Therapy (DBT) which helps clients learn skills in mindfulness, distress tolerance (managing crisis and stress in life without making it worse), emotional regulation (helping clients balance and regulate their emotions, skills to increase positive emotion) and interpersonal effectiveness (self respect, building relationships, learning to become appropriately assertive to get needs and wants met without demanding). These skills grow inner confidence and security that empowers one to move about the world trusting their own ability and capacity to figure it out.
In future posts, I’ll describe a bit more of these different aspects of DBT.
