THE SKILLS

IN THE CLASSROOM Skills can be woven into lesson plans Teachers and school counselors can focus on

teaching skills Repetition Helpful to orient family members to the skills Finding examples in lessons –

Crisis survival network when Alexander Graham Bell called out for his assistant while inventing the telephone

“The Old Man and The Sea” contains several skills (Feeling Not Acting, Keeping It in Perspective, and Half-Smile)

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory – character analysis

ANGER & EMOTIONAL DYSREGULATION Being in the moment can empower you

to notice and intervene when you start to gear up emotionally

These skills teach you to manage and tolerate strong emotions and crises without having to act on them

By maintaining awareness of your emotional state, and pausing for a moment you can focus on using a skill instead of acting on impulse

These skills can help you avoid harming others emotionally or physically.

ANXIETY Stay grounded in the current moment

without getting caught up in the past or the future

Reduce catastrophizing. Be willing to accept anxiety. Using skills to reduce frustration and pain

Use skills to help reduce the intensity of emotions

Continue to have healthy relationships even with anxiety

BIPOLAR Staying in the present empowers you to

move beyond previous mood swings and destructive behaviors associated with them

These skills help you manage crises and negative moods

You are able to track your emotions, engage in balanced self-care, and stay connected to your psychiatric prescriber

Maintaining healthy relationships contributes to stability with this diagnosis

CONDUCT/OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANT DISORDER These skills can get you our of your head

about what you think is going on and stay closer to your actual experiences

These skills may be essential for self-regulation to help you stop destructive and harmful behavior

You can benefit greatly from effectively getting to know and learning to manage your emotions

With these difficulties you may struggle in relationships especially with authority figures. You can increase your confidence and competency.

DEPRESSION Being in the here and now reduces

rumination about how it has always been this way and will always be this way

These skills can help manage hopelessness and suicidal feelings

The self-care embedded in these skills can be invaluable

These skills can combat the low self-esteem associated with mood disorders so that you can be effective in your relationships

EATING It is essential to stay present with the

ritual of eating while being non-judgmental

These are essential skills for managing the internal distress that may not be observable to others

These skills can assist you in managing your emotions more effectively

These skills can help you and your support system to establish healthy communication

IMPULSE CONTROL PROBLEMS Staying in the moment helps you learn

to be with your impulses without necessarily acting on them

These skills give you something to do besides acting on an impulse. They can provide a replacement or distraction

Managing emotions effectively can reduce or eliminate impulsiveness. Using the moment-to-pause skill helps you have more control

These skills can provide motivation to improve management of impulses

SUBSTANCE ABUSE Staying in the moment can help you

focus on the tasks at hand and reduce avoidance behaviors

Effectively managing difficult situations can reduce the need for substances

These skills can increase stability and life satisfaction

By being more functional in your relationships you may find less need for substances

SUBSTANCE DEPENDENCE If you are struggling with addiction, you

may spend very little time in the here and now. Mindfulness can be quite empowering and essential to establishing recovery

These skills can be extremely useful to you because you may have very little tolerance for frustration and pain

The intensity of your emotions can be overpowering and trigger relapse. You may have a strong tendency to engage in impulsive behavior.

TRAUMA This can help you stop reliving the traumatic

event. It also helps to acknowledge that the event is not occurring in the present moment.

These skills can help to reduce hypervigilance as well as to manage crises you experience.

These skills can be used to manage the emotional intensity associated with this diagnosis.

These skills can help you have appropriate assertiveness, self-respect, and investment in relationships

REVIEW ALL THE SKILLS Mindfulness

Distress Tolerance

Emotional Regulation

Interpersonal Effectiveness

SELF-SOOTHE FIRST AID KIT Marci’s example

PRACTICE VIGNETTE Rachel is a 13 yo female who has been

in a foster home after being removed from her family due to abuse. She has had some problems in school with aggressive and intimidating behavior. This is disruptive to her classmates and takes away from her learning.

Pick one skill from each of the four skill set areas that may help her and explain why?

DBT: WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS NOT This is not a de-escalation technique This is a set of skills to teach your

students how to control their own emotions rather than letting their emotions control them

This is a way to connect to these students This is a way to make a permanent

difference in the lives of your students This is a way to model healthy behavior This is not a cure for a student that needs

therapy

ROLE PLAY Using a current student as a case study

example, role play an intervention and how you could teach this student one of the skills?

Please use a dyad group to role play your situation?

Be ready to present your role play to the group in approximately 20 minutes.

WHAT NOW? You may want to create a DBT group

through you guidance department. You need to continue and/or start

collaborating with treating therapists in cases where DBT is the method of treatment

Involve Parents whenever possible or appropriate…sometimes the parents need the skills too!

YOUR FAVORITE SKILL & WHY