What Is Radical Openness? (RO DBT)

[Daniel E.]

Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Based on over twenty years of research, radically open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT) is a breakthrough, transdiagnostic approach for helping people s...

www.newharbinger.com

(2018)

Based on over twenty years of research, radically open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT) is a breakthrough, transdiagnostic approach for helping people suffering from extremely difficult-to-treat emotional overcontrol (OC) disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and treatment-resistant depression. Written by the founder of RO DBT, Thomas Lynch, this comprehensive volume outlines the core theories of RO DBT, and provides a framework for implementing RO DBT in individual therapy.

While traditional dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) has shown tremendous success in treating people with emotion dysregulation, there have been few resources available for treating those with overcontrol disorders. OC has been linked to social isolation, aloof and distant relationships, cognitive rigidity, risk aversion, a strong need for structure, inhibited emotional expression, and hyper-perfectionism...

RO DBT is based on the premise that psychological well-being involves the confluence of three factors: receptivity, flexibility, and social-connectedness. RO DBT addresses each of these important factors, and is the first treatment in the world to prioritize social-signaling as the primary mechanism of change based on a transdiagnostic, neuroregulatory model linking the communicative function of human emotions to the establishment of social connectedness and well-being.

As such, RO DBT is an invaluable resource for treating an array of disorders that center around overcontrol and a lack of social connectedness—such as anorexia nervosa, chronic depression, postpartum depression, treatment-resistant anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorders, as well as personality disorders such as avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive, and paranoid personality disorder...

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[There are 208 pages 😯of handouts (attached) and a couple are posted below.]

 

[Daniel E.]

What Is Radical Openness?​

• Radical openness means being open to new information or disconfirming feedback in order to learn.
  
  
• Radical openness helps us learn to celebrate self-discovery—it is freedom from being stuck.
  
  
• Radical openness can be rewarding—it often involves trying out novel ways of behaving that may help us cope more effectively.
  
  
• Radical openness is courageous—it alerts us to areas of our life that may need to change.
  
  
• Radical openness enhances relationships—it models humility and readiness to learn from what the world has to offer.
  
  
• Radical openness involves purposeful self-enquiry and a willingness to acknowledge one’s fallibility—with an intention to change (if needed). It can be both painful and liberating.
  
  
• Radical openness challenges our perceptions of reality. We don’t see things as they are—we see things as we are.
  
  
• Being open to learning new things involves a willingness to consider that there are many ways to get to the
  same place.
  
  
• Radical openness takes responsibility for our personal reactions and emotions—rather than automatically blaming others or the world.
  
  
• Radical openness helps us adapt to an ever-changing environment.

Radical Openness Is Not...​

• Approval, naively believing, or mindlessly giving in
  
  
• Assuming one already knows the answer
  
  
• Something that can solely be understood intellectually—it requires direct and repeated practice
  
  
• Rejecting the past
  
  
• Expecting good things to happen
  
  
• Always changing
  
  
• Being rigid about being open

 

[Daniel E.]

Not Everything That’s Important Is Emotional​

1. It’s all in the details!​

   • The brains of overcontrolled individuals are hardwired to notice details rather than global patterns of information. For example, they may often exhibit heightened memory for details and notice minor discrepancies (such as grammatical mistakes, a misaligned book in a bookcase).
     
     
   • Research suggests that this way of behaving may be nonemotional; that is, OC individuals appear to be very good at recognizing small details, regardless of how they’re feeling at the time.
     
     
   • Yet the consequences of detail-focused processing may be emotional. For example, noticing that a book is out of alignment on a bookshelf may be purely a nonemotional sensory receptor response. However, the obsessive need to straighten the misaligned item can trigger strong emotions.
     
     
   • Plus, this superior ability to notice small changes may trigger emotionally driven social comparisons (for example, frustration when a detailed observation is unappreciated by others, or secret pride in being able to notice an error that no one else picked up on).
     

2. Help! My self-control is out of control!​

   • By definition, overcontrolled individuals possess superior self-control capacities (for example, being
     able to plan ahead, delay gratification, tolerate distress, and inhibit emotional action urges).
     
     
   • Self-control involves areas of the brain that are nonemotional by nature.
     
     
   • Despite being nonemotional, self-control is hard work! It requires effortful control over emotion-based action urges and the delaying of gratification. Excessive self-control depletes energy.
     
     
   • Too much willpower depletes the energy resources needed to override too much willpower, making a person more emotionally vulnerable or reactive.
     
     
   • Superior capacities in self-control can lead to secret pride and frequent downward social comparisons(for example, secretly looking down on people who are unable to sit for hours during a meditation practice without coughing or twitching).
     
     
   • Excessive rule-governed behavior can result in a person being less open to change, which can damage important relationships (for example, insisting my partner stack the dishwasher according to my rules might result in an argument, or compulsive planning may make it hard to be spontaneous in a relationship).

 

[Daniel E.]

A video by the founder of RO DBT, Thomas Lynch:




Some links at Thomas Lynch's website:

Blog | Radically Open

www.radicallyopen.net

Find a Therapist | Radically Open

www.radicallyopen.net

 

[Daniel E.]

From the book:

 

[Daniel E.]

One Amazon review of the book/manual:

Lifesaving intervention

This manual describes the theory and practice of Radically Open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT), a transdiagnostic, empirically-based therapy for overcontrol (OC). Through extensive translational research, the author and treatment developer, Dr. Thomas Lynch, has managed to integrate a biosocial approach with polyvagal theory that addresses difficult-to-treat disorders in a novel, bottom-up fashion that circumvents pitfalls of traditional cognitive-behavioural therapies. This intervention fills a critical gap by effectively and creatively targeting significantly-impairing problems such as Anorexia Nervosa, chronic depression, and Cluster C personality disorders in a way that has been lacking in the literature to date.

Dr. Lynch presents this model, which challenges some core misconceptions about psychotherapy with the OC population –e.g., “one size does not fit all” (because emotional loneliness rather than dysregulation is the primary problem) - in a comprehensive yet accessible manner that that makes intuitive sense and will appeal to most clinicians.

Though the material is heavily influenced by neurophysiological science, Lynch’s writing remains engaging and reader-friendly throughout. Indeed, this manual will be accessible to a broad audience, including patients, those with an interest in therapy processes, graduate trainees, and mental health practitioners. I cannot recommend this book enough, and have already bought copies to share with my peers and supervisors. This is a treatment that will change lives.