All Therapists are Jerks, and . . .

Episode 93.  Holidays 2021.  By special request from a friend and through gratitude from a recent pre-holiday Parent University, Jo decides it's time for a holiday episode. A spur of the moment, feel the holiday spirit in your bones kind of episode.  Ulland, as usual, is game for the ride. Childhood secrets are revealed and suggestions to deal with holiday stressors are offered that are more about...

Episode 92. Community Reinforcement. Ulland and Jo review aspects of how to reinforce abstinence with the environment and how to replace addictive behaviors by accumulating positives. Even though it has been mentioned before, abstinence sampling is explained and reviewed. Ulland is excited by new tech--all too easy.

Episode 91. Clear Mind. Ulland and Jo review clean mind and addict mind, and the overlap where clear mind exists. This is a similar synthesis to reasonable, emotion and wise mind. They review characteristics of clean and clear mind, many of which are provided by the DBT skills manual authored by Marsha Linehan, PhD.

Episode 90. Dialectical Abstinence.  Man, this one has a rough start.  Ulland has a head cold, and probably presents as though he has viral meningitis.  Ulland and Jo review Dialectical Abstinence, what it is and provide several examples from the skills manual written by Marsha Linehan, PhD.  The examples provided are for planning for abstinence and harm reduction.

Episode 89. When the Crisis is Addiction. Ulland and Jo begin reviewing which DBT skills are often used for addictions with this brief overview defining addictions, the kinds of behaviors that can be addictive and the skills to use when the crisis is addiction.

Episode 88. AODA 7:  Special Strategies to Cope. Ulland and Jo review special strategies and skills that are necessary for working with substance use disorders.  They do not review the skills in depth although some skills may be reviewed during later episodes more specifically.

Episode 87. Interview with Raina 4. Raina shares how her treatment has translated into her life over the past two years. She discusses some lapses she had that were short lived, due to an understanding of dialectical abstinence. As she has done more work with trauma, she appreciates how important the work she has put into experiencing body sensations has been. She shares, "It would have been a fir...

Episode 86. Raina 3.  Raina shares how treatment was like for her and her family.  She discusses how limits on the unit were difficult and helpful, since she was more able to see how rescuing behaviors could lead to reinforcement of suicidality.  She reviews how some patterns within relationships inadvertently worsened her suffering. She shares how it was for her to effectively resolve a conflict...

Episode 85. Interview with Raina 2. Caution: This episode briefly mentions sexual abuse and suicide. Raina discusses what things were like right before treatment with conversion disorder symptoms, and dissociative episodes. She reviews a history of sexual trauma that led to her first suicide attempt and hospitalization that likely made things worse. She shares that her wish for suicide was not nec...

Episode 84. Interview with Raina 1. While on a visit to see family, Raina stops by to visit about life and how things changed after residential DBT treatment. This first episode reviews a history of multiple inpatient hospitalizations and suicide attempts leading to her readiness to commit to change in an intense, highly adherent program. She discusses the complexity of her symptoms and diagnosis...

Episode 83. AODA 6 : Special Attachment Strategies. In this episode Ulland and Jo review some of the special strategies for how to foster attachment with clients who are in Dialectical Behavior Therapy for alcohol or other drugs of abuse.  They review the unique challenges in attachment due to competition with powerful reinforcers for ongoing substance use in their daily lives which have often for...

Episode 82. AODA 5: Treatment Hierarchy.  Ulland and Jo break down the early stages of DBT for AODA as compared to standard DBT. They review pre commitment through Stage I targets such as life interfering, treatment interfering, and quality of life interfering behaviors.

Episode 81. Ulland and Jo come back.  They have been keeping busy, probably like everyone.  Life changes, manuals, Magic the Gathering, etc. And the You Tube announcement. Please catch the earlier podcasts with some visuals on the site. Same name, different place.

Episode 80: Is this what it's coming to?  Ulland discusses some ideas and shares some emotion about his experience this past weekend with social media and the polarization of posting. Jo brings her insights to social dialects and poses some DBT skills solutions, including dialectical thinking. She informs Ulland of what Cancel Culture is, since, as typical, he has no idea what's going on "in the r...

Episode 79. AODA 4: How AODA DBT differs from standard DBT.  Ulland and Jo review some key differences in how DBT is adapted to work for individuals with predominant substance use issues. A key difference is how dialectical abstinence is applied to decrease risk and severity of relapses should they occur. It is a middle path between absolute abstinence and harm reduction models.

Episode 78. Horror Stories from the Ward. Ulland admits outright to Jo that the title of this episode is clear click-bait. The content of the episode discusses how some things have not changed with stigma in mental health and with some discussion of systemic invalidation. They review the idea of DBT being misunderstood and at times judged as "elitist". They pose ideas as to why this might be. Some...

Episode 77. AODA 3: Similarities and Differences for 12 step and DBT.  Ulland and Jo take the time to review similarities and differences between the types of treatment. As always, examples are provided.

Episode 76. AODA 2: Evidence for DBT in SUDs.  Ulland and Jo discuss some evidence for DBT for treating substance use disorders as being promising, especially if clients have lower functioning or worse emotion dysregulation at the start of treatment. It is more likely that other programs are likely to be helpful for less severe pathology, whereas DBT might be more helpful for high comorbidity in c...

Episode 75. Listener Feedback for AODA Episodes.  Ulland and Jo consider the helpfulness of feedback provided via a listener who cautions against being to disparaging towards the twelve step model.  It is fitting and necessary feedback as the 12 step model is ubiquitous and helpful for so many individuals at various phases of recovery.

Episode 74 . We're Baaaack!  Welcome Back and Welcome 2021. Ulland and Jo come back after a period of quarantines and the craziness that has been 2020.  No resolutions for New Year's here.  And 2021 seems no less crazy than 2020 thus far for Americans.

Episode 73. AODA 1: Why? Ulland and Jo discuss the reason. They point out that they are not experts in addictions treatment. So, please, listen to the episode with grain, no . . . say a pound of salt.

Episode 72. Val 7: Accumulating Positives in the Long Term. Finally Jo tries her hardest to teach Ulland a skill. It is strenuous and treacherous, but valuable work, Jo says.

Episode 71. Ramblings of a Quarantined Mind. Apologies to the Listener. You may have been expecting accumulating positives in the long term, and that is not what this is about. Ulland and Jo discuss trying to get back in the saddle of recording when COVID hits close to home, and it ends up being about 'Merica, the world, and trying to vote from a wise mind place. It may feel like they are asking t...

Episode 70. Val 6.2 Death. Life after death. Kidding. In this episode Ulland and Jo wrap up the death talk. Ulland tries to monetize the Podcast with Tacos. Ulland talks about his liver… like who approaches living this way?! Jo comments to Ulland "You did a major cliff hanger from that episode to this episode—I almost forgot." Some cliffhanger, Ulland, some cliffhanger.

Episode 69. Val 6.1: Death 1. Ulland and Jo review Immortality Projects and how they are related to values. Ulland provides the only initial conditions for which he might chose to extinguish his flame—he's desperately hoping to never become a vampire, because, let's be honest, life is mostly routine and boring. He makes yet another mistake: the title of the Raymond Carver's last book of poetry is...