Find us again!
Click here, then add the page to your Favorites or Bookmarks.

Over 175 articles on:

• Mood, anxiety
• Treatments
• Medications
• Lifestyles
• The system
• Book reviews
• Personal stories

Help support Moodletter
with $12/year?

Moodletter provides information, hope and help to people living with depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder and those who care for them. A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

©2006-2010 Moodletter, Inc.
All rights reserved

Many of us know what it's like to lose control of our emotions. Whether we have a diagnosed psychiatric disorder or not, we may feel a little "crazy" sometimes. We may experience overpowering feelings that knock us off balance, plunge us into depression, make us fly off the handle, or terrify us without warning.

In Don't Let Your Emotions Run Your Life, author Scott E. Spradlin shows us how to use Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) techniques to help us regain control over our lives. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a method of treatment that was devised by Marsha Linehan and her colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle for the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD.) Its success with BPD has led to its use as an effective therapy for the treatment of bipolar disorder and other diagnoses. DBT is an eclectic mix of cognitive-behavioral techniques, skills training and Buddhist wisdom

Don't Let Your Emotions Run Your Life offers simple, DBT-based exercises that show us how to:

• Anticipate, understand, and ultimately avoid "high reactions;"
• Become aware of emotional triggers;
• Be less judgmental of ourselves when we do experience a surge; and
• Reduce the distress that intense emotions can cause.

This book equips us with cutting-edge tools for freeing ourselves from overwhelming emotions. You'll find worksheets, exercises and step-by-step guidance. DBT gives us the skills we need to reduce the impact of painful feelings and increase the effects of positive ones so that we may tolerate life's ongoing stresses and achieve a sense of calm co-existence with our emotions.

Scott E. Spradlin, MA, is a DBT therapist specializing in treating highly reactive clients. He currently owns and operates Kansas DBT, where he treats clients and trains professionals and students in the theory and practice of DBT. He is an adjunct professor in the counseling department of Wichita State University and the founding editor of the DBT Bulletin.

More articles