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FINISHED!

Tonight is my last night of a 5 week intensive outpatient program, working on a skillset called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.  It's a complex topic that has four critical elements:

  1. Mindfulness
  2. Emotional Regulation
  3. Interpersonal Effectiveness
  4. Distress Tolerance
This is actually my 6th week because I've been permitted to do 3 make-up sessions, and I greatly appreciate the additional time to work on skills.

While I see this as a lifelong pursuit, I've thrown myself into it with more dedication than anything else I've ever attempted.  I'm approaching people and difficult situations with a dramatically different approach than before.

The one area of struggle for me is radical acceptance.  No matter what I do, the outcome is always the same in one situation no matter the approach I take. I've relinquished efforts to control the situation or the outcomes, and now I just have to decide if I can accept it for what it is, fully, or not.


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