Calm in the Chaos: Distress Tolerance Skills for Managing Overwhelm

Presented by Dr. Madeline Wishart

Pain is part of the human experience, and we all experience crises at different times in our lives. Some young people have difficulty tolerating any distress and regulating their emotions, engaging in unhelpful behaviours in an attempt to downregulate (i.e., to reduce, alleviate or ameliorate unwanted emotions) or upregulate their emotions (i.e., to generate feelings or feel something). Unlike traditional therapies, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) takes a skills-based approach to learning to sit with, and accept these uncomfortable emotions when pain is unavoidable. Distress tolerance skills are aimed at helping young people cope with crises and experience distress without avoiding it or making it worse.

This full day workshop will draw upon the distress tolerance and mindfulness modules of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) to teach a range of coping, distress tolerance, and mindfulness skills. These skill sets will focus on strategies that can be assimilated…