Radically Open DBT: Dialectics & Radical Openness

Source: Adv PeerPlus Training Dev Resources — "Dialectics (DBT) Radical Openness Training" (an internal notes document — distinct from a same-named Drive shortcut elsewhere in this folder, whose target remains unresolved)

Introduces dialectics as two opposing forces that can both be true at once, with change unfolding gradually in spirals rather than straight lines — the underlying worldview beneath standard DBT and its RO-DBT (Radically Open DBT) extension, which is aimed less at containment/control and more at building openness, flexibility, and social connectedness for people whose coping style leans toward over-control. Names three stages of treatment: increased coping/tolerance capacity (fewer self-damaging or therapy-interfering behaviors, more behavioral skills); working through trauma; and increasing self-respect and mastery toward personal goals — taught through skills acquisition (lecture), strengthening (practice), and generalization (applying it broadly).

The Radical Openness process itself has three steps: acknowledging the presence of a disconcerting event and the urge it creates (to attack, control, flee, freeze, or avoid); practicing self-inquiry by turning toward the discomfort and asking "what is it that I might need to learn here?" instead of immediately regulating, distracting, or explaining it away; and flexibly responding with humility — doing what the moment actually needs, adapting to changing circumstances, and accounting for other people's needs too, not just your own relief.

Two memorable acronyms for distress tolerance: WISE MIND ACCEPTS (Activities, Contributing, Comparisons, Emotions, Pushing away, Thoughts, Sensations — self-soothing through the five senses) for tolerating short-term pain, and IMPROVE the moment (Imagery, Meaning, Prayer, Relaxation, One thing at a time, Vacation — even just a mentally imagined one, Encouragement) alongside weighing the pros and cons of tolerating vs. not tolerating distress. On accepting hard realities: distinguishes radical acceptance (which can feel like a big ask) from the more approachable radical acknowledgment of what's simply true right now — and frames willingness, not willfulness, as the starting point for being open to acceptance at all.

Pronouns & Identity (Content developed for PeerPlus)

Source: Adv PeerPlus Training Dev Resources — "Content to add to PeerPlus" (Youth Era original slide content; complements LGBTQIA.md)

A short training slide set on pronoun practice for peer support staff: common pronouns (she/her, he/him, they/them) alongside less common neo-pronouns (ze/zir, xe/xem, and others) with pronunciation guidance. Practical guidance for normalizing the topic: be the first to share your own name and pronouns when introducing yourself, then ask how others would like to be referred to, using discretion about when and where to ask; never force someone to disclose; avoid loaded questions like "are you a girl or a boy?"; and remember pronouns can change over time. Frames this directly as a YPSS safety-building practice: comfortably sharing your own pronouns and using unfamiliar ones for others, without visible hesitation, is itself part of creating a safe environment — not just etiquette.

Eating Disorder Harm Reduction Strategies (specialist-developed reference)

Source: Adv PeerPlus Training Dev Resources — "Eating Disorder Harm Reduction Strategies" (developed with input from ED specialists including nutritionists, dieticians, and dentists; explicitly not medical advice and not intended for anyone at risk of re-feeding/under-feeding syndrome)

A clinician-informed harm-reduction reference organized by behavior (vomiting, laxative use, bingeing, restricting, over-exercising), oriented around reducing the most severe physical harms of a behavior a young person may not be ready or able to stop entirely — rather than either endorsing the behavior or withholding help until abstinence. Recurring themes across the behaviors: staying medically monitored (electrolytes, vitals, heart and kidney function checked as regularly as a provider recommends); watching for specific medical warning signs that mean "stop and get help now" rather than "manage this yourself"; favoring less physically damaging versions of a behavior over more damaging ones when the behavior itself isn't stopping; and gradual frequency reduction as a realistic middle step rather than expecting an immediate switch to zero. Given the clinical specificity of this material, a coach's role with it should be limited to knowing this kind of specialist-vetted harm-reduction framework exists and can be a bridge to appropriate medical/nutritional support — not relaying specific behavioral tips directly, which the source itself says should be discussed with a provider whenever possible. Directly complementary to the harm-reduction philosophy already captured in Recovery.md.

Advanced Training Topic Bank & Coaching Techniques (internal brainstorm)

Source: Adv PeerPlus Training Dev Resources — "Advanced Training Notes Topics Ideas (MT)" — an internal working document of ideas contributed by staff, not a finished curriculum, but containing several concrete reusable techniques worth pulling out

Concrete coaching techniques worth reusing directly:

• "I Feel / I Need": list a young person's feelings in one column and the adjacent unmet need in the next — e.g., feeling unsafe/scared pairs with a need to feel safe; feeling numb or overwhelmed pairs with a need to feel connected; explore the specific "what" underneath each need rather than stopping at the label.
• State, Story, Strategy: a decision generally goes wrong because of one of three things — emotional/mental state (low energy and self-criticism retain information poorly), the story (the belief informing the action, worth protecting/examining), or the strategy itself (even a good state and story can be undone by a poor strategy).
• Story, Teach, Tool: a facilitation structure where a coach shares a consented, real personal story that mirrors a young person's situation, names the lesson embedded in it, and hands over the concrete action step ("tool") that actually moved things forward — more effective than advice given without a relatable story attached.
• 3 C's: Catch the thought, Challenge the thought, Change the thought — a compressed version of the cognitive-restructuring tools already in Perceptions_Thoughts.md.
• Appraisal Theory and anger: anger follows a primary appraisal ("what's happening?") and secondary appraisal ("how important is this?"), and serves an evolutionary function — where fear alerts to danger, anger alerts to injustice and energizes confronting it. A short companion distortions list specific to anger: catastrophizing, misattributing causation (blaming the wrong source), overgeneralizing ("I hit every red light"), demandingness ("I don't care why, they need to hurry up"), and inflammatory labeling.
• Art-based techniques: asking a young person to draw their feelings using color and shape (a coach can model this first — e.g., smooth rolling hills for an easy morning vs. jagged spikes for a rushed one); "redacted art" / blackout poetry (blacking out most of a printed page to leave behind a new found-poem); and an "identity collage" prompt — what has had to be removed, edited, or concealed before you could bring your full self into the world, and what's one thing you wish others knew about you.
• Brief references (named but not detailed in the source) to Thomas Hübl's trauma-as-function-not-dysfunction framing (a defense pattern is the nervous system's attempt at coherence, not a flaw — cross-reference Trauma.md), Dr. Bruce Perry's Neurosequential Model, RAIN by Tara Brach (already fully captured in Self_Love.md; this source adds a "3 Stages of Trance" framing — anxious obsessive worry, blaming/othering others, and turning against yourself as "the trance of unworthiness"), and a "Deepest Fear Inventory" exercise.

Topic bank: the bulk of this document is a long, wide-ranging brainstormed list of potential topics for coaching youth and training YSS staff — spanning self-care, communication styles, trauma (abandonment, intergenerational trauma, trauma bonding, somatic experiencing), relationships (codependency, relationship structures, red flags), internet safety, resilience-building (gratitude, play, belonging, spirituality), sex and sexual safety (consent language, harm reduction, destigmatizing language choices), inner work (core beliefs, perfectionism, self-compassion, self-sabotage), neurodivergence and specific mental health conditions, LGBTQIA-specific youth topics, financial literacy, substance use and eating disorders, and oppression/social-justice topics. This functions as a useful index of what Youth Era staff already consider worth covering — genuinely useful for Martin's own future curriculum planning, even though the individual topics aren't developed in detail here.

(This folder's "Spectrum Activity" subfolder — Personal Identity Wheel, Social Identity Wheel, Spectrum Activity, and Spectrum Activity Questions — duplicates material already fully captured in Power_Privilege_Oppression.md and was not re-extracted. "Screenshot 2023-04-04 153648.png" in this folder is an identical duplicate of the "Empowerment Might Include" graphic already captured in PYD.md. Three items remain unresolved Drive shortcuts whose targets are unknown: "07 Okun - White Supremacy Culture copy.pdf," "Peer Plus Proposed Info Change," and a second "Dialectics (DBT) Radical Openness Training" shortcut distinct from the real document captured above.)