Welcome to
Mindfulness
as applied in
Dialectical Behavior
Therapy
Kate Zinaman Doucet, MEd, MS, LPC
www.dbtforteensandadults.com
kz.lpc.dbt@gmail.com
(337) 344-9400
349 Doucet Road, suite 209
Lafayette, LA 70503
Mindfulness is
 the repeated effort of bringing the mind back to
awareness of the present moment, without
judgment and without attachment.
 the practice of observing thoughts, emotions and
urges rather than acting on them in the moment.
 a way to increase nonjudgmental awareness and
improve attentional control.
 needed to make use of the other DBT skills.
 for clinicians as much as for clients.
 presented in a secular format.
Distinction between Meditation and Mindfulness
As described by Marsha M. Linehan, “Meditation is the practice
of mindfulness by attending to, gazing, watching or
contemplating something, while sitting or standing quietly.” It
is formal practice.
 Sitting quietly, focus on breath
 Sitting quietly, focus on internal experience
 Sitting quietly, focus on external surroundings
 Moving slowly, focus on one activity
(ex: eating meditation, walking meditation)
Meditation is Mindfulness
but
Mindfulness is not necessarily Meditation.
For some people, meditation is counter-therapeutic.
Marsha Linehan, p.175, DBT Training Manuel:
“It is very important to help participants let go of expectations
about breathing. Expecting breaths to become slow or deep…
or expecting to relax or feel differently while practicing can
induce panic responses and actually interfere with
experiencing wise mind…
For many, a focus on breath alone allows their mind to
generate trauma memories, ruminating thoughts, and traumatic
and/or painful images. Extreme emotion and/or dissociation
may be the result. Others get agitated immediately when they
focus on their breathing…
For others, difficulties with attention or with sitting or standing
still can make prolonged attention to breathing very difficult.
(These difficulties)… are the principal reason why DBT
does not require meditation… for individuals who
cannot tolerate it.”
Those same people can be Mindful now, by focusing on each
activity with full awareness as they live it.
Benefits of Regular Mindfulness Practice
 Increased emotional regulation.
 Increased activity of brain regions associated with positive
emotion.
 Increased sense of well-being.
 Decreased depression and risk of depression
reoccurrence.
 Decreased anger and emotional irritability.
 Decreased anxiety.
 Decrease in both distractive and ruminative thoughts and
behaviors.
 Enhanced immune response.
 Improvements in coping with pain and depressive
symptoms in people with chronic pain.
 Decreased cardiopulmonary and gastrointestinal
symptoms.
DBT Core Mindfulness Skills:
 States of Mind
Emotion Mind, Rational Mind, Wise Mind
 What Skills
Observe, Describe, Participate
 How Skills
Nonjudgmentally, One-Mindfully, Effectively
States of Mind
Rational
Wise
Emotion
Mind
Mind
Mind
What Skills
Observe
 Pre-verbal
 Outside yourself with all 5 senses
 Inside yourself – thoughts, emotions and physical
sensations
 Develop “Teflon mind” - metaphors
 Don’t push away feelings
Describe
 Put words on the experience
 Without Interpretation
 Only observable facts
Participate
 To experience fully
 To distract as a means of coping
Find “flow moments” no matter what the activity is.
How Skills
Nonjudgmentally
 Non-evaluative as opposed to moving from negative to
positive or balancing judgments.
 Emphasis on consequences of behaviors
 Accurate discrimination of one thing from another.
One-Mindfully
 Not thinking about the past or the future.
 Not ruminating about current negative emotions, thoughts.
 Not with attention divided among more than one task.
Effectively
 Know what your goal is.
 React to the actual situation rather than what you wish it
would be.
 Know what will and won’t work, when to play by the rules
and how to be savvy about people.
 Sacrifice a principle to achieve a goal when necessary.
Other perspectives on mindfulness to be presented very
briefly in DBT Skills Group, in an advanced skills class
or in individual work.
Spiritual Perspective – for those who are uncomfortable with
the connection to Buddhism and/or anyone who will benefit
from connecting mindfulness to their faith beliefs.
Balancing Doing Mind with Being Mind
Doing
Wise
Being
Mind
Mind
Mind
Walking the Middle Path – finding the synthesis between
opposites.
Resources
 There’s an app for that! DBT Mindfulness Tools found in
the app store.
For clinicians
 DBT Skills Training Manual, Second Edition, Oct. 20, 2014
by Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP, specifically Chapter 7.
 DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second
Edition, Oct 21, 2014 by Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP,
specifically pp 45-107.
 DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents Nov 20, 2014 by Jill
Rathus, PhD and Alsc L. Miller, PsyD, specifically Chapter
6 and pp. 267-278.
Self-Help
 Calming the Emotional Storm: Using Dialectical Behavior
Therapy Skills to Manage Your Emotions and Balance
Your Life, Mar 1, 2012 by Sheri Van Dijk, MSW,
specifically Chapter 1.
 Mindfulness for Borderline Personality Disorder: Relieve
Your Suffering Using the Core Skill of Dialectical Behavior
Therapy, 2013 by Blaise Aguirre, MD and Gillian Galen,
PsyD.