The first steps toward change in thought and behavior can be daunting and disorienting.  We lose our footing and stumble, and as we desperately reach for something to hold on to, we fall all the way back to square one.  Using these principles as handrails will facilitate your ascent toward dialectical thought and behavior.

Dialectics refers to the balancing of opposites- the holding of two or more seemingly opposite perspectives at once. Through DBT- an inherently active modality- we seek to avoid falling for the black-and-white, the all-or-nothing styles of thinking that amplify and prolong our disharmony with this ever-changing world of contradictions.  In dialectics, we seek to adopt a both-and outlook and pull away from an either-or perspective.