Chamberlain International School is a therapeutic boarding school for students aged 11 through 22. Chamberlain International School combines individualized academics with a comprehensive clinical care program, which includes emotion regulation training based on dialectical behavior therapy.
Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, uses four modules to help clients learn skills to manage their emotions and actions. One of these four modules is emotion regulation, through which clients learn to manage intense negative feelings while strengthening their positive experiences. The client comes to understand that emotions are a natural part of life and not inherently bad, while also coming to accept and release negative emotions rather than acting on them.
The first step is to specifically label negative feelings. The client learns the difference between a primary emotion, which is a reaction to an external trigger, and a secondary emotion, which is the patient's reaction to his or her primary emotion. In becoming aware of the former, the client begins to be able to consciously avoid the spirals of shame often inherent in the latter.
Clients then learn how to reduce their vulnerability to the effects of negative emotions. This involves learning how to take care of their physical well-being, while pursuing activities that increase feelings of competence. Clients also learn to integrate enjoyable and positive experiences into their daily lives, in order to provide balance to the often overwhelming influx of negative feelings that arise.
Once clients have had some practice identifying their emotions and building on positive experiences, they begin to learn how to reduce their suffering in the face of negative feelings. To do so, they learn to mindfully let go of the emotion and engage in positive opposite actions.
Taking opposite actions may be challenging, in that the individual must still accept the emotion while acting against it. For example, if a client feels angry, he or she may smile and do something kind for another person. Such actions tend to decrease the intensity and the duration of the negative feeling, while protecting against the negative behaviors that can otherwise lead clients to destructive cycles of self-hatred.
