DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) is a groundbreaking treatment designed to help individuals regulate their emotions and behaviours. Initially developed in the 1980s and 1990s for individuals diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), it has since shown effectiveness with a wide range of mental health disorders, especially substance use disorders, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. It has also shown usefulness with individuals who do not have a diagnosed mental health disorder, but who struggle to regulate their emotions and behaviours. The pillar of the treatment is the central dialectic of acceptance and change. A dialectic refers to a pair of opposites being equally valid at the same time: radical acceptance and change simultaneously.

Dr Sarah Swannell (PhD, MClinPsych), Advanced DBT Clinician, coordinates and runs DBT skills training groups in Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness and Mindfulness.

DBT skills training groups are appropriate for individuals who are committed to and motivated for treatment; are not currently engaging in high risk and/or life-threatening behaviours; and do not require between session support. Individuals who do not meet these criteria require more intensive and individual support outside of the scope of these skills groups.

For more information about DBT Skills Groups visit Dr Sarah Swannell's website www.sarahswannell.com.au

EMDR Therapy stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy, which is the technical name for this therapy that helps people to reprocess overwhelming past experiences. When we have not yet come to terms with and experience, it can cause difficulties in the present by distorting our interpretations and exaggerating our physiological reactions to more benign experiences in the here and now. EMDR Therapy works to shift information that has been stored in an excitable, unhelpful way in your nervous system to connect it to the healthier, more helpful information in the rest of your brain.

Schema Therapy blends insights and strategies from a variety of therapies, including CBT, psychodynamic therapy and Gestalt Therapy. A schema is an organising principle in your mind, made up of memories, thoughts, urges to act, feelings and sensations. We all have both healthy and unhealthy schemas, based on how well the environment we grew up in met the needs we were born with. Schema Therapy helps you to transform unhelpful schemas into helpful schemas by understanding the origins of your unhelpful schemas, and making changes to your behaviour, thinking habits and your ways of relating to yourself and others.

Dissociation refers to our habit of compartmentalising, or unlinking aspects of our experience. For instance, when we daydream, we disconnect from the present moment and travel in time or space through our imagination. Everybody dissociates from time to time, and it can be a useful and even pleasant thing to do. People who over-use dissociation to cope with stress, however, may experience internal conflicts, less control over their behaviour, and emotionally intense and intrusive or confusing experiences. Therapies that work on resolving structural dissociation seek to understand the nature and purpose of any compartmentalisation that is present, and to establish harmony within internal experience. Being at peace with yourself in private is foundational to your wellbeing.

CBT helps people understand the relationships between thinking patterns, behaviour patterns and emotions, and to make changes to behaviour and thinking habits to improve emotional wellbeing.

Mindfulness is an enormously powerful tool that enables people to maintain perspective on their experiences and difficulties, and prevents people from getting caught up in unhelpful, fleeting experiences. Therapies that teach people to focus deliberately on the present moment, and change the common habit of spending most of life either re-living the past or worrying about the future enjoy a solid evidence base. Two of these therapies that we practice are ACT and CFT:

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
  ACT helps people to identify their core values, and encourages people to commit to living according to those values in the here and now. ACT teaches mindfulness, and specific mindfulness techniques to help to get people unstuck from problematic thoughts and feelings, and to focus on living in the moment, working and engaging in a valued life.
• Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)
  This mindfulness based therapy involves specific techniques to help people to offer more compassion to themselves. There is evidence that people who meet life’s challenges with an attitude of kindness towards themselves enjoy greater wellbeing, as compared to those who blame and criticise themselves for their difficulties. CFT helps you to develop a compassionate attitude towards yourself, and be a true friend to yourself in times of hardship.