Show Notes
Welcome to our first bonus episode and our teaser for Season 2! In this episode, the TITW answer questions from listeners about how to cope effectively on Valentine's Day (or any holiday/event for which you might have high expectations, even if you wish you didn't). We start by sharing our own anecdotes from Valentine's Days past, where things may have gone better for us had we known about DBT. We each share stories about unmet expectations and discuss which DBT skills we could have used; Liza describes how using mindfulness skills would have helped increase flexibility, and Molly shares how communicating expectations, rather than assuming someone is a mind-reader, would have led to a more effective outcome.
We then respond to listener questions related to experiencing loneliness in Wise Mind, resisting urges to reach out to a past romantic partner, and using Opposite Action to love in order to get over a relationship. We answer the questions by encouraging you to make Cope Ahead plans in advance of Valentine's Day, with a mix of acceptance (mindfulness, self-validation, urge surfing) and change skills (opposite action, problem-solving, and asking for what you need).
We hope you enjoy, stay skillful on Valentine's Day, and continue to stay tuned and send us questions for Season 2! *Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @TherapistsInTheWild, and Twitter @TherapistsWild, and email us with questions/feedback at [email protected].
More from Therapists In The Wild
In our last episode of the Therapists in the Wild podcast, we're coming full circle: dialectics was the topic of our first ever episode, and now we're wrapping it up two years later by letting our listeners in on how we have used a dialectical frame to face this ending head on. We review the DBT skills we used to lean into our discomfort, to have difficult conversations that have deepened our relationship, and ultimately, to radically accept this change in a way that felt true to ourselves, our friendship, and, we hope, to our listeners. We try, more so than ever, to practice radical genuineness and vulnerability in this emotion-filled episode. We are more grateful to you, our listeners, than we can possibly express. We hope that you will continue to share the podcast, stay subscribed, and follow us on social media to stay involved in our future projects.
This month's episode is a re-release of an episode introducing one of our favorite DBT skills: Radical Acceptance (Episode 23). We hope you enjoy and look forward to being back next month for the final episode of Season 2!
"Burnout" has become a buzzword since the start of the pandemic, for good reason. Many of us are feeling burnt out, in many areas of life, and could benefit from using DBT skills to cope.
Happy New Year, TITW listeners! As we head into the new year, we're reflecting on the values we want to prioritize and how we can commit to moving toward those values. Since deepening relationships and creating new ones has been on our minds lately, we decided to do an episode on vulnerability. Vulnerability can be defined as "the practice of taking emotional risks even when the outcome is uncertain." We start out by discussing certain forms of anxiety that interfere with opening up even to trusted people in our lives. We then explore what we miss out on when we act on this anxiety (i.e. missing opportunities for closer relationships, as well as feedback, support, and validation). We end by suggesting a few DBT and other skills to use in the moment when anxiety is holding you back from being vulnerable with someone you trust.
This month on TITW, we're practicing self-compassion. Liza and Molly have been studying the work of Dr. Kristin Neff, a psychologist and researcher who breaks down the practice of self-compassion into concrete steps. We've noticed a lot of overlap between Dr. Neff's work and DBT skills, and we discuss the similarities in this episode.