Individuals who have difficulty with emotional regulation report that they are constantly intruded upon by their feelings or find that they are unable to feel the normal range of human emotion. Their emotional reactions are highly reactive, and they experience emotional lability. They may become easily and quickly sad, angry or anxious and have difficulty coming back to a stable emotional baseline. The good news is they also have a greater ability to experience joy and happiness. People who struggle with emotional reactivity feel like they are walking around with no ’emotional skin’ in other words they have no buffer to protect themselves from difficult emotional feelings. Because they are so emotionally vulnerable sometimes they go to extreme behaviors (i.e. suicidal behaviors, drug/alcohol use) to try to take care of themselves and to alert the environment to take better care of them. The emotional pain they experience causes them to turn to quick, short term, solutions to emotional lability as a way to cope.

Emotional Regulation is achieving a balanced emotional life where you are neither numbed out from your emotional experiences nor emotionally overwhelmed by them. Achieving emotional balance is done through both talk therapy as well as learning specific concrete strategies for managing your emotional experiences.  Therapy helps individuals to feel more in control of their emotional reactions, so they can consider the longer terms goals, and become more effective in communicating their emotions to others.

Research shows that Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), a structured approach originally designed to treat Borderline Personality Disorder, is effective for emotional regulation. DBT gives individuals concrete techniques to help lessen the emotional intensity they feel and to develop better ways to communicate their feelings to others.

I have advanced training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).