Dialectical Behavioral Therapy was created by Dr. Marsha Linehan, a psychologist who vowed to make it her life’s work to create a therapy for individuals who struggled with severe mood instability.

This gold standard therapy is evidence-based and used to treat a variety of mood disorders such as: Borderline Personality Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and severe depression treatment resistant.

This therapy teaches skills such as emotion regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness and interpersonal effectiveness.

It is a one-year protocol that is based on the biosocial theory. This theory suggests that the biology of these individuals causes high emotional sensitivity, high emotional reactivity and a slow return to emotional baseline. As a result, socially these individuals have long suffered from invalidating environments where there is pervasive nullification of private experiences coupled with ignoring or punishing for displaying emotions and a theme of over-simplification of problem solving by the environment. Taken together the consequences result in pervasive emotional dysregulation which get worse if not treated aggressively and scientifically.

At Essential Touchstones we teach our participants how to validate themselves through skills training, role playing, psychodrama, experiential therapies, and grounding techniques. Contact us to learn more.

A healthy workplace is good for business. Sometimes life challenges exceed an employee’s ability to adaptively cope. While it is nice to think employees can leave their personal lives at home, that isn’t always achievable. The same issues that affect employees at home can increase stress and negatively impact their level of satisfaction and performance on the job. Anxiety, depression, burn-out, grief, and addiction are some examples of issues that can result and benefit from treatment.

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) offer employees confidential, therapeutic services and support to help them resolve problems and manage feelings that may negatively impact their behavior, health and overall well-being. Offering services such as assessment, short-term counseling, referral, management consultation, and coaching may alleviate some of the burdens faced by employees, demonstrates you care, and shows a willingness to invest in employees’ health. Losing an employee is costly due to the impact of mental health stressors on morale and productivity and the cost of recruiting, hiring and onboarding new employees.

Investing in an EAP to help with retention and productively begins to make a lot of sense. Employees who are engaged and satisfied with their work tend to stick around longer. The benefits to the employer include a more positive work environment, increased morale, increased productivity, reduced turnover, decreased absenteeism, reduced accidents, and reduced workman’s comp claims. EAPs address problems in the quickest, and most convenient manner while minimizing costs to the employee and protecting client confidentiality.

When choosing an EAP provider, employers should consider years of service and experience of the practice, flexibility in hours of operation, availability of telehealth platforms, diversity amongst providers, accessibility, and scope of services offered. An EAP typically covers your employees and could also cover eligible household members, including a spouse, domestic partner, children, or other dependents. Combining a health insurance plan and an EAP would keep services financially accessible.