Concepts

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• AcceptanceAcknowledging what is happening so you can respond. It does not require approval, forgiveness, or remaining in harm.
• Action urgeThe impulse to do something that accompanies a feeling, such as interrupting, avoiding, or reaching. An urge is not an instruction.
• AttentionWhat receives emphasis in your experience. Here, practicing attention includes noticing wandering and returning.
• Autonomic nervous systemProcesses that help regulate bodily functions without ongoing deliberate direction. Some functions, including breathing, also permit voluntary influence.
• Body representationYour experienced or imagined model of your body. A change in this representation is not necessarily a change in the physical body.
• BoundaryEither a physical or experienced edge, or a limit you communicate in a relationship. The Self and Emotions sections use these different senses.
• Check the factsSeparate observable events from assumptions, then ask whether the emotion and its intensity fit the situation.
• CompassionAn orientation of care toward difficulty, including your own. It need not arrive as a warm feeling.
• ConstructOn this site, a deliberately imagined representation: a shape, object, place, or body. It remains an idea or image, even when assigned a location.
• CravingA strong wanting or urge. Here the goal is choice around it, with real needs such as food and rest still respected.
• DBT (dialectical behavior therapy)A structured psychotherapy developed by Marsha Linehan, combining acceptance and change. This site offers selected skills, not the full therapy.
• DEAR MANA DBT request-making reminder: Describe, Express, Assert, Reinforce; stay Mindful, Appear confident, Negotiate.
• DialecticalMaking room for apparently opposing truths: you can accept a present feeling and also change what you do next.
• Distress toleranceSkills for getting through a difficult moment without making it worse. Solving the underlying problem may come later.
• Emotion regulationRecognizing and responding to emotions, including changing conditions or actions. It does not mean eliminating emotion.
• EquanimitySteady care amid changing experience. In this site’s exercises it means room to respond, rather than indifference.
• FASTA DBT self-respect reminder: be Fair, avoid unnecessary Apologies, Stick to values, be Truthful. Appropriate apologies still matter.
• Feeling toneThe pleasant, unpleasant, or neither quality of an experience. It is narrower than a full emotion such as anger or joy.
• Five StreamsOur accessible label for exploring body/form, feeling tone, recognition, intentions or formations, and conscious experience. Inspired by contemporary texts. These are not five literal substances.
• GIVEA DBT relationship reminder: be Gentle, act Interested, Validate, use an Easy manner. Validation does not require agreeing with every claim.
• Grounding / orientingHere, returning attention to familiar surroundings and physical support. A simple return, not a diagnosis or a guaranteed treatment.
• Guided imagery / visualizationUsing an imagined scene or sensation as an invitation. Vivid pictures are optional; words or a general idea may be more accessible.
• Imagery rescriptingA clinical method of revisiting distressing imagery and imagining a changed response or sequence. Our mild-memory rehearsal is not the researched therapist-led treatment.
• InferenceAn interpretation drawn from observations. “I noticed warmth” is an observation; “this proves the exercise works” adds an inference.
• InteroceptionSensing and interpreting signals from inside the body, such as hunger or breathing sensations. Not every bodily process is consciously felt.
• IntuitionA quick sense or judgment that may arrive without a clear account of the reasoning. On this site, treat it as a possibility to check alongside facts.
• Letting goIn these practices, briefly stopping an extra effort, argument, or pursuit. It does not mean abandoning care or responsibilities.
• Mental fortressAn optional metaphor for an imagined place you can recall, revise, and leave. It offers no physical protection.
• Mind-made bodyHere this names contemporary internal body-imagery exercises, without claims of leaving or moving the physical body.
• MindfulnessAttending to present experience, including thoughts and feelings, with room to notice before reacting. It is not the absence of thoughts.
• NonreactivityAllowing an experience without immediately adding an automatic action or argument. It does not require numbness or passivity.
• Opposite actionA DBT skill for changing an emotional action when the emotion does not fit the facts or the action would be ineffective. Safety and context come first.
• Perspective-takingConsidering how an event might look to another person. An imagined viewpoint is a hypothesis; ask them when safe and appropriate.
• ProprioceptionYour sense of the position and movement of your body, such as knowing where an arm is without looking.
• Radical acceptanceA DBT practice of acknowledging the reality of this moment, including difficult facts. Acceptance can coexist with action to change the situation.
• RerecordingThis site’s informal metaphor for rehearsing a present-day response to a mild memory. It is not a literal recording replacement, recovered-memory method, or established treatment schedule.
• RuminationHere, repeatedly going over the same concern without finding new information or a useful next step. Reflection can instead end with a choice or a pause.
• SomaticRelating to the body. Here, somatic practice means exploring felt sensation, support, movement, attention, and imagery in ordinary life.
• Subconscious / automaticWe use subconscious informally for processes outside immediate awareness. It is not a separate person receiving commands; different automatic processes have different mechanisms.
• TIPDBT skills involving Temperature, Intense exercise, and Paced breathing with paired muscle relaxation. Follow the individual page’s health cautions; not every option suits every person.
• Urge surfingNoticing an urge’s bodily sensations and changes while leaving room to choose your action. Success does not require the urge to vanish.
• ValidationAcknowledging that a feeling or perspective can make sense in context. It does not certify every interpretation as fact.
• Willing handsA DBT acceptance invitation using an open, relaxed hand position. It is optional and does not mean agreeing to another person’s demands.