Walking the Walk - DBT and a leopard bikini
The image is a black and white cartoon of Vicky wearing patterned dungarees, glasses and a flowery scarf. Vicky is surrounded by cartoon roses and slices of bread. Portrait courtesy of Katie Abey - Katie Abey
Oh hey blog pages, let me just blow the cobwebs off! In 2024 I want to begin bringing more of my voice as a therapist and human to my website and to share more of what goes on in the background at Bread and Roses.
Walking the Walk has been born out of my enthusiasm for using therapy skills in my everyday life - I really believe in being a client and human first, before I put on my professional hats. I also know that some of the jargon in counselling can be a bit baffling, so I want to see if I can help make that a bit easier to swallow - while sharing the bits which I feel can be really effective.
You might find these posts interesting if you want to understand a little more of the theory behind DBT or its close friends ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) and CFT (Compassion Focused Therapy). You might also want to read on if you’re trying to get a sense of whether I am the right professional and human for you to collaborate with (and I am going to be really human - stay tuned for the time I tried really hard to not be sick when I met one of my heroes, or the time I faced fat phobia demons in that leopard print bikini).
Trying out the skills I work with is particularly important to me as an neurodivergent and queer affirmative professional, as it supports me to remain curious and to wring all the best bits out of different modalities. This supports me to tailor them to the fantastic, unique, people who I am lucky to work with. I also believe strongly that good therapy is about supporting you to make changes, and sometimes learning new skills and experimenting with them in a supported way can make an impact.
How it all began
During 2023 I was lucky enough to be part of an amazing cohort of therapists and coaches who met for 13 months to learn about DBT or Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, led by the fantastic Dr Sophia Graham of Love Uncommon (check out their kick ass courses DBT courses here: TEAM - love uncommon. ) Sadly my 13 months in the programme have just come to an end, and I would love to keep the momentum going by continuing with this blog.
DBT (What is dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)? - Mind) is a newer type of cognitive (thinking) behavioural (doing) therapy which was initially designed to support people who feel their emotions intensely. It was originally developed by Marsha Linehan in the 1980s and delivered in group formats. At its best, I feel it provides a space to explore and find ways of managing our emotions more effectively, respond compassionately to our distress, solve problems and create closer and more meaningful relationships. DBT is strongly behavioural, which means trying new things…it also holds that two things can be true at the same time - for instance, we can want to do something and at the same time be really overwhelmed (we’ll get onto that bikini again in a later post!).
My hope is that you may be inspired to delve into different approaches to finding your unique way, and maybe the joys of walking the walk, as well as talking the talk in counselling. The leopard print swimwear is strongly advised but completely optional.
Warmly
Vicky
