Member Thoughts

Beginners Mind by: Christina Kallas J.D., Esq. It can be daunting to write a regular column, in any publication. It can be particularly daunting to write for this publication. The audience is people who have studied DBT, who are ‘experts’. I have been learning about DBT for almost three decades, but I haven’t ‘studied’ it…

Thoughts from our Public Member - Chris Kallas Sometimes things don’t go as we planned.  Often, actually. At those times, it’s good to have resilience. Skills are helpful too. When I sat in front of Marsha and learned DBT, I thought I was doing it for my child. I never thought I would be using…

Thoughts from our Public Member We all say that it’s important to be mentally healthy. After several months of living under this pandemic, we have had a chance to realize how truly important - and difficult to achieve - mental health is.  What’s a ‘little thing’ is also more apparent. If everyone is on edge…

Having lived for many years in a family with a member who has BPD, as I watched our Congress this past year, I kept thinking that teaching Congress members DBT Skills would result in enormous benefits to our country. After the attack on the Capitol a few weeks ago, frightening and sad as it was,…

Are We There Yet? Where We Are on the Road to Our ‘New Normal’?, and How Do We Get There? When we have a problem, most of us look for advice about how to solve it. In the case of a pandemic like Covid-19, we have to go back to experiences where there was a…

Thoughts from our Public Member - Chris Kallas The parent of a child who is ill feels pain. The parent of a child who is mentally ill feels pain, along with a whole host of other emotions: fear, anger, and lots of frustration: at the inability of the doctors to ‘cure’, at the coldness of…

Thoughts from our Public Member - Chris Kallas I remember taking a music class in seventh grade. We learned to read music, and some of the highlights of the history of music. I enjoyed it thoroughly. But with all the other things I was studying, I didn’t study it again. Then about 10 years ago…

Newsletter column by Public Member of the DBT LBC Board, Chris Kallas When someone you love has a mental illness, or even emotional difficulties, you don’t think, “Where can I find someone to help him who has a PhD in clinical psychology, who has at least five years of experience in treating someone with this…

If Alec Miller challenges you to begin the DBT program certification process together and months pass and you still don’t get going, you might ask yourself, WTF? Why not? Beware, this is not a tale of overcoming obstacles, rising to the occasion and finally accomplishing that goal. This is the tale of a new and…

Thoughts from our Public Member - Chris Kallas May is BPD Awareness Month. Thanks largely to the efforts of NEA BPD, on April 1, 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 1005, which recognized the month of May as Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month. The vote was 414-0. (Nope, not a typo; even…