Emotion Wave Cycledialectical Behavioral Training



. DBT is an effective treatment for people who have difficulty controlling their emotions and behaviors. DBT aims to replace problem behaviors with skillful behaviors. DBT skills help people experience a range of emotions without necessarily acting on those emotions. The 2015 film Inside Out is an exceptional and accurate portrayal of our five core emotions. These primary emotions are joy, sadness, fear, anger, and disgust. This film depicts how we use these emotions when difficult and happy experiences arise, and how we need the negative emotions just as much as the positive.

Every day, we encounter a variety of emotions; we can respond to these feelings in many different ways. When most people experience a negative emotion like sadness or anger, we tend to either push the feeling away or react to it quickly.
However, there is a different way of handling difficult emotions— a DBT or Dialectical Behavior Therapy technique that can make our negative emotions more manageable. It’s called “Riding the Wave.”
“Riding the Wave” encourages us to experience our emotions like waves in the ocean. We float with less intense feelings or ride the waves of stronger emotions. This skill is like riding a surfboard during the emotions - knowing that it will last only a little while and then will subtly subside. Here are a few tips to help you practice “Riding the Wave”:

Emotion Wave Cycledialectical Behavioral Training
  • DBT is a powerful and proven-effective treatment for regulating intense emotions such as anger. With its dialectical focus on acceptance and change, its roots in basic behavioral and emotion science, and its practical, easy-to-use skills, DBT provides a unique and effective approach for understanding and managing anger.
  • Ripple Effects provides personalized and trauma-informed training & assessment programs & apps to promote mental and behavioral Health and SEL competencies.
  1. Be aware of the emotion
    In a non-judgmental and mindful manner, recognize the feeling that you are experiencing. Name the feeling and think of it as part of you, but not all of you.
  2. Experience it
    Experience your feeling like a wave moving like the ocean. You can’t stop a strong wave from coming towards you. Try not to push the feeling away or take hold of it. Don’t try to control it too strongly or make the feeling bigger than it is either. Instead, ride out the wave of emotion in an appropriate manner.
  3. Remember, this feeling is only one part of you
    This emotion should not force you to react in any certain way, especially in a way that is harmful to you. Recall moments when you experienced more positive emotions to remind yourself that they will return soon enough. Like a wave in the ocean, this feeling will take its course.
  4. Accept and tolerate your emotion
    Try not to assign positive or negative thoughts to this feeling. Fully accept that this feeling is part of you right now, but it is only temporary. Try pretending that your feeling is a “guest” in your home, who you can tolerate “hosting” for the time being.

Remember to think of your emotions like the ocean. Feelings come in waves; some waves may be stronger than others, but they all will pass.
Next time, instead of putting your feeling aside or trying to control the emotion quickly, try riding the wave. Recognize what you feel, let yourself experience it, know that it is only temporary, and accept that the feeling is part of you in the moment. “Riding the Wave” will help you feel more comfortable managing difficult emotions.
(Source: “RIDING THE WAVE”-A Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Metaphor For Mastering Emotions by Ben Caunt)

Emotion Wave Cycledialectical Behavioral Training Techniques

Emotions are neither good or bad, they are essential for survival. Emotions help us to defend ourselves (anger and jealousy), to protect ourselves (fear, shame, disgust), to connect with other beings (love), to motivate (envy) and to live according to our values (guilt). Emotions do this by triggering an urge to do something.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy For Children

Human beings (and sometimes other mammals) are sensitive. Thoughts (interpretations) produce an instant biochemical response. Our brains, eyes, skin tone (and usually our facial expressions) change instantly. And we feel an urge to take action. All this happens before we’re even aware of an emotion. The “action urge” is powerful. We find ourselves taking action before we assess the efficacy of the action. Sometimes this is very helpful. If I see a tiger running towards me, it’s beneficial that I take action immediately, without stopping to think about what to do. I don’t need to make an interpretation; I just need to get to safety. But if someone cuts me off on the freeway, and I feel angry and an urge to retaliate, that may create problems for me (like possible death!). That is a good time to do the opposite to the emotion action (urge).

People may have trouble in life because they take action on their emotion urge before using Wise Mind and other mindfulness skills.

We all do Opposite Action on many occasions. If the Walgreen’s clerk is irritating me (my anger might be justified, I’m in a hurry, the clerk is chatting with her friend instead of helping me), I generally don’t yell at her. My emotion is justified but the intensity is not. I moderate the action urge to yell at her, and I use interpersonal skills to effectively get her attention. We do ok, perhaps, in situations like that. But many people don’t do Opposite Action when the urge is very strong. Then life gets harder – “I don’t feel like getting out of bed to go to work,” = I lose my job. “I feel like people don’t like me” = I avoid people and am lonely. When my girlfriend breaks up with me, I feel like hurting or killing myself = ….

Emotion

Training Courses Dialectical Behavior Therapy

How to do Opposite Action:

Emotion Wave Cycledialectical Behavioral Training Seminars

  1. Use Mindfulness to notice the emotion, the action urge (and, if possible, the prompting event and the interpretations of the prompting event).
  2. Ask yourself, is this emotion justified or unjustified?
  3. Don’t suppress the emotion, when we suppress emotions, they just get bigger. Emotions are not the problem – urges and/or intensity are the problems.
  4. sk yourself, if the emotion is justified, if the intensity of the emotion is justified or helpful. If the emotion is not justified or the intensity of the emotion is not helpful:
  5. Do the opposite of the emotional urge.
  6. Do all the way Opposite Action.

How to figure out if an emotion is justified? This takes some study of emotions. Again, we need emotions for survival. But we are complex. If I have a thought about an event, the thought is not necessarily a fact, even though it feels like it is. In short, checking the facts helps. If I’m not absolutely sure that an emotion is justified by the facts, and I have a habitual problem behavior that I want to change, it’s a good idea to experiment with Opposite to Emotion Action, and to get help from therapy and possibly a DBT Skills Training group.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Definition

Emotion Wave Cycledialectical Behavioral Training

Emotion Wave Cycledialectical Behavioral Training Reliaslearning

An example: A shy person might be lonely and might feel Shame and Fear when he goes to social gatherings, which comes from thoughts like “people don’t like me,” “I don’t know how to talk to people,” “I never have a good time at parties,” etc., etc., etc. Is Shame justified? Shame fits the facts of a situation when you will be cast out/rejected by an important group or person if attributes of yourself or your behavior are made public. Is Fear justified? Fear is justified whenever the situation is a threat to your life, your health or your well being. What can the shy person do?

  1. The partygoer can use Wise Mind to figure out if he will be cast out or rejected if he goes to the party or if his life, health or well-being will be threatened.
  2. If the partygoer thinks that he might be tolerated and relatively safe at the party, he can use Opposite Action and go.
  3. Once there, the shy person needs to use All the Way Opposite Action: He needs to approach people, to avoid thoughts like “I hate parties,” “No one likes me,” and so on. If he goes to the party and stands alone in the corner, the partygoer is NOT doing Opposite Action.
Emotion Wave Cycledialectical Behavioral Training

What Is Dialectical Behavior Therapy

This is a simple explanation of what could be a complex problem, informed by years of painful experiences. By practicing Opposite Action, the partygoer is beginning to change his brain and will begin to notice a reduction in Shame, an emotion that might be especially painful and not really justified in his life. (The partygoer is also practicing Exposure. Exposure to the things we’re afraid of is the antidote for fear and shame.) Opposite Action, a powerful skill taught in DBT Skills Training groups, can help him to have a life worth living.