Question 1

Borderline Personality Disorder AKA BPD

Accepted Answer

People experiencing symptoms of BPD experience emotions very intensely and abruptly which lead them to make decisions in a very emotional and short-term fix state of mind. Their coping mechanisms and behavioral choice cause them to be judged often and invalidated by others, they tend to lose friendships and relationships due to their inability to regulate their emotions and tolerate things not going the way they had planned, negative things that happen in life and overall emotional discomfort which often feels like physical discomfort. BPD symptoms can be acute in which cause problems for the person at school/work, in relationships and with their own self, they can also be minor issues that only effect self-esteem and self-worth. People with BPD might have experienced trauma in life and trauma is not a requirement to experiencing the symptoms. Acceptance of the emotional reactivity is important in learning how to manage them and DBT skills help with learning to tolerate discomfort, regulate emotions, and slow down the time between emotional reactivity and reaction to begin making more effective and wise decisions and CBT helps learn how to communicate with oneself to begin having more autonomy with your actions and a different perspective on life.

Question 2

Generalized Anxiety Disorder AKA GAD

Accepted Answer

People experiencing GAD experience the emotion of anxiety extremely often and extremely intensely for just about anything. The emotion of anxiety is a fear like emotion that is a protector of possible danger, which means when one experiences anxiety their thoughts lead them to begin thinking about all the possible catastrophes that could come from a certain circumstance or situation, which then leads them to either avoid or begin panicking trying to solve the catastrophes. It’s very difficult to identify the trigger of the emotion and there is an important acceptance piece that the emotion of anxiety is not going to go away. The DBT skills help one tolerate the emotion of anxiety and lower the intensity of the physical discomfort while learning to notice catastrophes, challenge them with Socratic questioning and then bring yourself back to the present moment with mindfulness to begin thinking through if your anxiety is going to help you or do you need to begin acting opposite of what your anxiety is telling you for a positive future outcome.

Question 3

Attention Deficit/ Hyper Disorder AKA ADD/ADHD

Accepted Answer

Those experiencing ADD and ADHD tend to have very similar symptoms, the one difference is, one is much more energetically hyper and has a difficult time sitting still vs the other is hyper minded. The symptoms otherwise are the same and mostly problematic when one gets overwhelmed often with their thoughts since their thoughts are extremely fast and this then causes them to get overwhelmed and avoid doing tasks or problem solve in a state of overwhelmed and impulsively, which really does not work well for anyone when we problem solve in any heightened emotional state. The work we do is mainly learning to practice mindfulness skills to slow down your response time to your thoughts and bring you to the present moment, begin using pros and cons and cope ahead skills for problem solving, and practice CBT behavioral activation skills to get you to be more efficient with tasks. Another thing to possibly radically accept and not be mad at yourself for is you will more often be late, and if as long as you are you are trying your best to be on time, you are doing your best to be respectful of others and their time.

Question 4

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy AKA CBT

Accepted Answer

CBT is a behavioral modality of psychotherapy, which means it focuses on behavior and utilizing techniques taught by the modality to modify behaviors. The philosophy of CBT is that our thoughts, the way we communicate to ourselves, our emotions, the triggers that send signals to our brain to engage in action, and our actions, the actions we choose to engage in, are all connected, and one triggers the other. Since one is connected to the other CBT believes that if we change the way we communicate and think then we can change the way our emotions send signals to our brain and change the way we behave. CBT has a set of skills that people must practice daily and preferably hourly, to gain proficiency in changing their thoughts to change the patterns in their body and modify unwanted behaviors.

About the CEO

Assessment and treatment of borderline personality disorder

DBT and CBT skills understanding and implementation

Mental Health Psychoeducation and Mindfulness

About the Skills Application Model of Therapy

Symptoms we specialize in working with:

Borderline Personality Disorder AKA BPD

Generalized Anxiety Disorder AKA GAD

Attention Deficit/ Hyper Disorder AKA ADD/ADHD

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy AKA CBT

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