Many individuals that come to counseling express difficulty around emotions -- understanding them, identifying them, and managing them.

Do you experience any of the following?

• Frequent mood swings

• Intense emotional reactions

• Trouble calming down

• Black and white thinking

• Impulsivity

• Difficulty maintaining relationships

• Feeling overwhelmed

• Difficulty understanding your own emotions

If so, you may benefit from counseling related to emotion regulation and/or distress tolerance. There are many reasons why some people have more difficulty than others regulating emotions, including genetics, early life experiences and observations, trauma, stress, lack of skills practice or knowledge, and more.

DBT, or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, is a framework specifically designed for those who experience these "big emotions" and have trouble managing them. It includes a large range of useful perspectives and skills that have the ability to help people feel much more in control and confident. It is broken down into four modules: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Emotion Regulation. 

Traditional DBT has group therapy as part of the process, but DBT can be adapted to work in an individual setting as well, and is just as effective. In individual therapy, the counselor can individualize the treatment to fit your needs, introducing skills that fit your particular situation. In individual online therapy, you are able to work together with your counselor to identify your needs and create a treatment plan, which can be modified as needed to make sure you are moving in the direction you want. The therapist can work through these skills with you, practice with you in session, and help you come up with challenges between sessions to grow even further. 

Gabrielle Bowen, LICSW at Clara Counseling currently holds a certification in DBT, and loves working with new clients to create goals and move towards them one step at a time. Many clients enjoy working with her down-to-earth approach, and experience much growth and self-reflection from sessions. For more information on Gabrielle, visit the About Me page. If you'd like to contact her, give her a call or send her a text at 205-202-9496, or submit a Contact Form here.