Wellness
This foundational pillar of wellness, recommended in 7–9 hour nightly doses for adults, is sometimes called the body's best recovery tool.
What is sleep?
This skill teaches you to observe your thoughts and feelings without judging them — often described as watching your mind like clouds passing across the sky.
What is a non-judgemental stance?
This term describes the stigma people internalize from society, often becoming their own harshest critic about their mental health condition.
What is self-stigma/internalized stigma?
This coping skill involves pausing before acting on a craving, using the insight that urges are temporary waves that will peak and pass on their own.
What is urge surfing?
Researchers say this simple act is one of the strongest predictors of happiness and social bonding across cultures
What is eating together/sharing a meal?
Researchers have found that having even one person you can call in a crisis dramatically reduces this health risk, comparable in impact to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
What is loneliness / social isolation?
This DBT concept describes the balance between your 'emotion mind' and 'reasonable mind' — the sweet spot where you are both feeling and thinking clearly.
What is wise mind?
Although often used interchangeably, clinicians distinguish this short-term stress response from a longer-lasting disorder that may require treatment.
What is anxiety vs. anxiety disorder?
In recovery, this term describes people, places, and things that can spark cravings — and identifying them in advance is a core relapse-prevention skill
What are triggers?
In group therapy and support circles, this norm — that what is shared in the room stays in the room — is the foundation of psychological safety.
What is confidentiality?
This chemical, released during exercise and often called the body's natural painkiller, contributes to what runners famously describe as a 'high.'
What are endorphins?
A concept that is the opposite of multitasking.
What is a one-mindfully skill or doing one thing at a time and staying present
This neurotransmitter, sometimes called the brain's 'feel-good' chemical, plays a central role in depression and is the target of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants.
What is serotonin?
This widely taught skill, sometimes called '4-4-4-4,' activates the parasympathetic nervous system and can reduce cravings and anxiety in the moment.
What is paced/diaphragmatic breathing/box breathing?
This process allows the brain to change and adapt by growing new neural pathways, much like a muscle growing stronger at the gym.
What is neuroplasticity?
This approach to wellness focuses on flourishing in all areas of life — physical, mental, social, and spiritual.
What is holistic wellness
The DBT acronym — standing for Temperature, Intense exercise, Paced breathing, and Progressive relaxation — is used to rapidly calm the nervous system in a crisis.
What is TIPP
This 'window' is a concept in trauma therapy referring to the optimal zone of emotional arousal — neither too activated nor too shut down — for healing to occur.
What is window of tolerance/capcity?
Rather than aiming for absolute perfection, this modern, pragmatic clinical strategy focuses on teaching skills to minimize the secondary dangers of substance use, such as teaching individuals to never drive while intoxicated.
What is harm reduction?
Before modern talk therapy, 19th-century doctors attempted to relieve psychological distress by applying these objects to a patient's head to manipulate their "animal magnetism."
What are magnets
This evidence-based framework, used in health coaching and behavior change, describes five stages from pre-contemplation to maintenance.
What is stages of change?
This DBT skill set targets the biological factors that make emotions harder to regulate, covering physical illness, eating, mood-altering substances, sleep, and exercise.
What are PLEASE skills?
First described by Bessel van der Kolk, this phrase — also the title of his landmark book — argues that trauma is stored physically in the body.
What is The Body Keeps the Score?
This rapid, life-saving emergency medical treatment is an opioid antagonist that completely blocks opioid receptors, instantly reversing an overdose in under three minutes.
What is Naloxone or Narcan
If therapist spots you in a grocery store, ethical guidelines (HIPPA) legally forbid them from doing this simple social action first, purely to protect your absolute right to privacy.
What is saying hello?