With a staff well-versed in mind-body-spirit connections through counseling, massage, mindfulness and yoga, the center provides holistic care and wellness services.
One such service is dialectical behavior therapy, commonly called DBT.
Licensed professional counselor Christell Buholzer will lead a three-part workshop series to introduce the benefits of DBT for children through adults this fall.
It’s a talk therapy designed to guide individuals to better understand their emotions and lead toward developing healthy relationships with themselves and others.
“It’s geared toward helping those (individuals) not get rid of their distress but how do they balance that distress so that they can live with it and tolerate it because it doesn’t ever go away fully,” she said.
The word dialectical means two often opposing emotions co-existing – such as fear and joy. DBT frequently is used to help individuals with anxiety, borderline personality disorder, distressing thoughts, or self-harming or suicidal behaviors.
DBT has four components:
- Mindfulness: Teaching individuals how to be in the now, reducing judgment of their feelings and “radically accepting” things they can’t change, Buholzer said.
- Emotion regulation skills: Encouraging people to check the facts. Is the emotion they are experiencing warranted, and if it is, what is a healthy way to deal with it? If it isn’t, how should they act on it?
- Distress tolerance: How to reduce anxiety, stress, self-harm or suicidal thoughts.
- Interpersonal relationships: Reducing harmful behaviors, improving connection skills and becoming more assertive.
Of the four, Buholzer said mindfulness stands out because it becomes incorporated into the other three.
There are no age restrictions on learning and utilizing these skills. Everyone can benefit.
“I think DBT can be used with almost anyone,” she said. “We’re teaching you how to deal with life. We’re teaching you how to control your emotions.”
This often takes the form of joining the two seemingly opposing views – the emotional one and the rational one. The goal is “being aware of your emotions, but you can think rationally so you can make better choices for yourself and your life and the people around you because ultimately your choices are going to affect everyone that is around you,” Buholzer said.
The workshops, held in Ubuntu’s second-floor space in Chardon Square, will focus on:
- Introducing DBT – October 26th
- Group skills – November 16th
- Individual counseling – December 7th
Because life is not lived in isolation, it is important for individuals to explore how they interact with others, asking questions like: What is important in a relationship? How do we make healthy relationships? How do individuals advocate for themselves in a relationship? What does a healthy relationship look like?
Each session will provide skills training with a strong focus on mindfulness. This practice, which has become somewhat of a buzz word of late, involves exercises and lessons to encourage brain-body connections to something happening in the moment. You’re angry? How can you be mindful of that emotion? You’re hungry? How can you be mindful of that feeling?
Buholzer describes mindfulness as “everything from saying a prayer to meditation to practicing yoga to knowing how long a minute is, working on guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation exercises such as yoga.” These practices take a person out of the past and puts them squarely in the moment and might involve grounding skills, utilizing all five senses to identify the moment being experienced. “Sometimes I bring in a Hershey Kiss where you have to hold that in your mouth and think about the best Hershey Kiss you’ve ever had,” she said.
Mindfulness practice has made its way into many schools and other group settings where individuals are trained to stop in a moment and fully embrace what they are feeling. It also can be done by individuals in their own private moments. It feels simple but involves dedication to not flitting through something, rushing away from what just happened or worrying about what is coming next. At Ubuntu, mindfulness is incorporated into clinical counseling services, studio classes and wellness programs.
At its heart, Ubuntu encourages people to connect with themselves. “We are inundated in the media with what wellness ‘should’ look like and then we place judgment on ourselves because we feel we don’t fit that mold. We want to break those self-imposed barriers and encourage that wellness is accessible to everybody. No matter what,” its web site says.
Ubuntu’s team includes four counselors, three yoga instructors, two Reiki massage experts and a Mindfulness for Kids specialist.
Services include chakra restructuring, clinical counseling, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, corporate wellness programs, DBT, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy, massage, school wellness programs and studio classes.
