Life Skills I

Life Skills I is based on the philosophy and practices of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. The goal of this skill based program is to help individuals who have significant life stressors and difficulty with regulating their emotions, thinking patterns, behaviors, relationships, and their self concept. It is a program, based in mindfulness practice, that combines acceptance and understanding with skills to contain, regulate, change, and experience new patterns of thinking, feeling and acting.

This program begins with an intake meeting with one of the group facilitators. This is a time when both client and therapist can get to know one another and clients can learn more about the program. It is followed by a six week orientation to the program. During this time, clients are able, in a small group setting, to begin to learn skills that will help them to decrease their distress and manage their lives more effectively.

This is followed by four modules that focus on managing stress, mindfulness, building and maintaining healthy relationships, and managing emotions more effectively.

In a weekly 2 ½ hour group setting clients will find support, learn, and practice new skills. It is combined with individual therapy and out of group skills coaching to reinforce the skills previously learned. 

Life Skills II

Building Life Skills II is a continuation of Building Life Skills I. Its purpose is to practice and generalize previously learned skills in the group setting and in daily life.

While the Skills I focus is to learn skills to manage and contain emotional dysregulation, chaotic relationships, and ineffective and self harming behaviors, the Skills II focus is to begin to balance the managing of dysregulation through containment with being mindful of the emotional dysregulation and using new skills to discharge the emotions without resorting to ineffective coping strategies learned in the past.

In addition, new goals are to increase sense of self worth and healthy self identity, to develop of healthy boundaries, to increase social interest and contribution to society.

Because insight and cognitive understanding are not enough to keep individuals from reliving trauma responses over and over, this process utilizes not only additional skill training and coaching, but also movement, psychodrama, somatic and creative techniques.

Further Information

For further information about any of these services, please call 952-892-7690 and speak to either a therapist or the office manager. You may also conveniently email us using the contact information in this web site.