"A lot of clients come to therapy seeking solutions and strategies to solve problems that prompt pain and distress in their lives. The skills in the Distress Tolerance module have been designed with a different approach - as they are designed to help clients get through painful situations without adding additional pain." (Linehan, 2021)

Distress Tolerance is also part of the Acceptance side of the program, while the next two modules (i.e. emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness) focus on the change side of the therapy.

Skills taught in Distress tolerance are the following:

Distress Tolerance skills have two parts, crisis survival skills and radical acceptance skills.

In Crisis Survival skills it’s about Accepting the moment you are in, without demanding it to be different.

There are 2 rules of crisis survival:

1. If you are in a crisis and you CAN solve the problem now then solve it

2. If you CANT solve the problem then let’s find a way to survive it

This includes learning about skills to implement:

• Self-Soothing (through senses putting together a self-care kit)

• The Stop skill which is to Stop, take a step back, observe, and proceed mindfully

• Pro & Con helping make a list

• Distraction skills

• Tip Skills (temperature, intense exercise, paced breathing) - this is the first skill for suicidal cases to lower physiological arousal

These crisis survival skills are all acronyms such as: Dearman, give, fast. And through them instead of trying to get what you want, you're simply trying not to destroy what you want. When practicing these our counsellor is always open to emergency therapy sessions to help with your in the moment practice.

Next here are the reality acceptance skills:

○ Mindfulness of current thought

○ Radical acceptance

○ Half-smile

○ Willing hands

○ Willingness

○ Turning the mind

These skills are important because if you don’t accept the reality, you’re in then you cannot change the reality you’re in.

An important part of Distress Tolerance is that these strategies are not designed to solve the problem or to make you feel better, these are the things we use when we can’t solve something.

Now it’s time to choose your adventure if you want to learn more about virtual therapy and our online counselling services? Hit a button below!