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COACHING CONCEPTS
Compassionate Care for Every Woman
DIALECTICAL BEHAVIORAL SKILLS TRAINING
Initially developed by Marsha Linehan, Dialectical Behavioral skills focus on teaching people skills to manage intense emotions, cope with challenging situations, and improve their relationships. It encourages people to learn and use mindfulness training in practical ways.
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Who may benefit from DBT?
Originally developed for treating Borderline Personality Disorder...the cornerstone of DBT — skills training — can help anyone navigate emotionally charged situations with more ease and success.
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How can mindfulness change how people experience strong emotions?
Many people in therapy have very strong emotions that lead to negative thoughts, says Dr. Blaise Aguirre, a psychiatrist who founded the 3 East Dialectic Behavior Therapy Continuum at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital. "They say things like, 'I'm stupid,' or 'I can't control my anger,' or 'No one will ever love me,'" he says.
The mindfulness aspect of DBT teaches people to pay careful attention to the nature, quality, and volume of their thoughts. The idea is to observe these thoughts as separate from yourself without identifying with their meaning. This is the first step to addressing the impact of those thoughts, Dr. Aguirre explains.
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Corliss, Julie. Dialectical behavior therapy: What is it and who can it help?. Harvard Heart Letter. 2024
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Emotional intelligence skills encompass the ability to understand, use, and manage one's own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. These skills are crucial for effective communication, building strong relationships, and navigating professional and social situations.
Here's a breakdown of the key elements:
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1. Perceiving Emotions:
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The skills needed to accurately perceive and identify emotions in one's self, other's and the environment.
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Strong emotional perception is important for influencing behavior, resolving conflict and team work.
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2. Connecting Emotions:
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Connecting physical feelings/sensation to emotional experience so that thinking and problem solving is optimal.
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Strong Connecting skills is important for effective reasoning, decision making, problem solving, decision making and creativity.
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3. Understanding Emotions:
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Knowing WHY and HOW emotions occur and how they change as situations change.
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Emotional insight important for predicting emotional reactions/changes, how other's may react, recognize emotional nuances and better express one's self.
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4. Managing Emotions:
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Having the ability to embrace emotions in self and others, reflectively manage emotions and use emotions for optimal decision making.
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​Emotional management fosters personal growth and development, decision making and relationships.
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Emotional intelligence skills enable individuals to navigate the social and emotional landscape of life with greater success, leading to better relationships, improved mental health, and enhanced overall well-being.
​Emotional Inelligence Assessment By Appointment
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Mindfulness
What is Mindfulness?
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Mindfulness is a behavioral practice in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. Practicing mindfulness involves breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress. Mindfulness can be practiced any time, anywhere and, in fact, is best used in difficult situations! Spending too much time planning, problem-solving, daydreaming, or thinking negative or random thoughts can be draining. It can also make you more likely to experience stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression. Practicing mindfulness exercises can help you direct your attention away from this kind of thinking and engage with the world around you.
What are the benefits of mindfulness?
Mindfulness has been studied in many clinical trials. The overall evidence supports the effectiveness of mindfulness for various conditions, including: stress, anxiety, pain, depression, insomnia and high blood pressure (hypertension). Preliminary research indicates that mindfulness can also help people with asthma and fibromyalgia. Mindfulness can help you experience thoughts and emotions with greater balance and acceptance. Mindfulness also has been shown to: improve attention, decrease job burnout, improve sleep and improve overall health and well-being.
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Adapted from: Mayo Clinic. Mindfulness Exercises. 2022.