The following elements from ‘Dialectical Behaviour Therapy’ can all be used to help young people recognise the thinking styles or patterns that make them vulnerable to strong negative emotions and to work out ways to handle them.

G5iv. Reducing cognitive vulnerability

Certain styles of unhelpful thinking render people cognitively vulnerable to overwhelming emotions. Several exercises are offered to help reduce the power of unhelpful thinking styles.

G4i. Focusing on the present moment

Mindfulness skills help you to focus on one thing at a time in the present moment, and by doing this you are better able to control and soothe overwhelming emotions. This element includes three focusing exercises. The first focuses on outer experience, the second on internal physical sensation, and the third combines and contrasts these two experiences.

G4ii. Recognising and focusing on thoughts, emotions and physical sensations

This element, also drawn from Mindfulness, builds on Practice Element G4i ‘Focusing on the present moment’. Once the basic skill of focusing on the present moment is achieved, progress can be made to the skills of switching attention between objects, and distinguishing between thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations.