Dbt

[Appleblossom]

I like your attempt to be balanced about your experience of DBT @CannonSalt ... given that you endured preaching more than therapy it takes a generous person to be able to do that.

I am looking into it ... but found that my son's psych is the Head shrink at the local private clinic ... which runs DBT courses .... that has put me off a bit ... he is only just ok .... my lovely old GP also warned me off the new batch of local psychiatrists ... kindly ... I am not overly influenced by him but when I get 3 sets of warning bells from different directions ... I am listening. its too much like this doctor is making a financial "killing" in the area.

We will see what happens.

[CannonSalt]

The main reason I can sleep at night is that I was able to make that formal complaint successfully.  It was clear from his dismissal letter that he was sorry that I was offended, but that he thought his actions were completely appropriate - and so did his colleague, as she told me that she'd pre-approved the letter before he sent it. 

One of the reasons I persisted with the therapy for as long as I did was because up until the point where DBT guy was like 'let's not talk about anything but forgiveness and how this is something that religious people have special insight into because religion is ancient and good and has always tried to help people etc. etc.' I was having some progress in purely functional aspects of my life. That, and his constant undermining of me by reminding me that I was here for a reason (subtext: that I was a crazy person) and that I should trust him and do as he told me to. I hoped that eventually, we could reconnect on some shared values or getting on with things, which is how I usually handle conflicts of faith. 

Interestingly, the one time I've seen DBT failure discussed in 'the literature', it's due to a non-compliant client who wasn't trying hard enough.  If you join your State Library, you may have access to this article.

This article argues that all therapies initially seem like a panacea - until it's discovered that they aren't.  Once the placebo effect of having tried the latest thing goes away, you're left with the method itself.  The alternative view is that people themselves are changing - that we are less likely to have the fortitude to change than in previous eras, we're too decadent.  Maybe we're starting to find the cracks in DBT - that if you go after the 'therapy-interfering behaviour' of explicitly being uninterested in the religious dimension, the client ends up becoming so frustrated that they stop trusting you and end up doing 'life threatening behaviour' in secret.  The interesting thing is that in the fine manual Marsha M. Linehan states that it is important to connect the spiritual aspects of the therapy to the patient's own practices.

Nonetheless - he has been officially told that he has to be more sensitive about religious diversity, and some of the procedures which contributed to the situation (patient knowledge of rights, transfer and feedback procedures) have been reviewed. His little red wagon has been fixed as much as anyone except he is able to fix it - and if anyone else declines under his hyper-religious approach, it won't be because I kept quiet.  I think that the colleague has been told that if someone wants to make a complaint, help them to do so so that the person doesn't go to the complaints board first.  He really did think he was doing the right thing by me - which makes it both better and worse. 

There's a sample chapter for Marsha M. Linehan's revised edition of the workbook available online, though heavily watermarked.  There is a lot of 'proving that this technique works' in it but it does cover the broadest possible overview.  If you google around, it's possible to find places where it goes more in-depth on each technique in DBT - which is useful if you can remember the acronym, but can't remember the techniques that are meant to go with the acronym. 

[Appleblossom]

It is great that you had the awareness and confidence to make a complaint. It is good you did your bit to make others aware of the limitations of DBT. 

I have often given over my sense of self completely to the current therapist and struggled to be the perfect patient and do all the right things.  If the therapist isnt mature or ethical enough there are so many ways that it can become debilitating.  I then become enabling of the therapist ... I told one therapist that it was a good idea to charge for missed appointments if there was no notice ... and then felt like kicking myself ... whose side was I on?? I tend to get people off the hook ...

There are practitioner issues and specific method issues.

I was surprised earlier when someone on this foum earlier told me that DBT is Gold Standard and that it works.  Emotionally I am naive and usually put everything into what I do (110%) ... but intellectually I am well trained in critical thinking and have long been skeptical of anything presented as a panacea.

I am interested in DBT as it seems to draw on things that I encountered over the years and seems a summation of good ideas etc ... but when it is rolled out all over the country and careers and big money from medicare rebates become involved ... it doesnt suprise me that cracks appear in the new method. That less than committed practitioners hop onto it as a new booming industry. Human existence is far too complex for "experts" to make rash promises about finding a cure-all.

Hope is important ... but not false hope.

The dangers religious abuse have become more recognised.  Keep posting and reaching out @CannonSalt and we all try and live and learn to find the best supports for us as individuals.