Plum BHS

02/20/2026

DBT Class Update — Assigned February 19, 2026 | Due February 26, 2026
Homework Assignment: Distress Tolerance Worksheet 8 - Radical Acceptance & Self-Soothing

This week we're practicing accepting painful realities we can't change and soothing ourselves through the pain of acceptance.

Your task: Identify a reality you've been fighting, practice radical acceptance to end the war with what is, and use self-soothing to comfort yourself through the pain.

What you will work through:

• Identify a specific painful reality you've been refusing to accept
• Get honest about how you've been fighting it (denying, bargaining, raging, numbing)
• Calculate what refusing to accept this reality actually costs you
• Distinguish between pain (what happened) and suffering (fighting what happened)
• Practice acknowledging the facts without judgment or interpretation
• Allow the emotions that come with accepting painful truths
• Turn your mind back toward acceptance when you catch yourself fighting again
• Use self-soothing with your five senses to comfort yourself as you accept
• Try vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch to be gentle with yourself through the pain

Key insight: Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Pain is what life hands you. Suffering is what happens when you refuse to accept the pain. Radical acceptance doesn't mean you approve of what happened or that it doesn't hurt. It means you stop the exhausting fight against unchangeable facts. And self-soothing means you treat yourself with kindness as you carry that pain.

The goal is to put down the fight with reality and care for yourself through what's actually true. Acceptance isn't cold or harsh. It's acknowledging what is and then being gentle with yourself as you feel the weight of it.

Due February 26! You have one week to practice accepting what you've been fighting and soothing yourself through it.

Acceptance plus self-compassion changes everything. You're not just surrendering to pain. You're holding yourself through it.

02/20/2026

RO-DBT Class Update
Assigned February 18, 2026 | Due February 25, 2026

Homework Assignment: Radical Openness Worksheet 13.A - Practicing the Core Mindfulness "How" Skill: With Self-Enquiry

This week we're practicing treating our thoughts as hypotheses rather than facts by asking ourselves curious questions.

Your task: Notice when you "know" something with certainty, then practice self-enquiry by asking curious questions about your interpretations.

What you will be doing:
• Catch yourself having strong reactions, judgments, or certainties about situations
• Practice asking yourself curious questions instead of accepting your first interpretation as truth
• Use questions like "How do I know this?" or "What else could this mean?"
• Record your initial interpretation and the self-enquiry questions you asked
• Notice what happens when you treat your thoughts as hypotheses instead of facts
• Pay attention to any discomfort or defensiveness that comes up when questioning your certainties
• Observe how self-enquiry affects your flexibility and relationships

Key insight: Overcontrol treats its interpretations as facts. You see someone frown and "know" they're angry. You feel anxious and "know" something bad will happen. This certainty feels like clarity, but it's rigidity masquerading as insight.

The goal is to develop intellectual humility. Self-enquiry doesn't make you uncertain about everything. It makes you accurate about the things that matter. The more rigidly you cling to your first interpretation, the more likely you are to be wrong. Questioning your thoughts isn't weakness. It's wisdom.

Due February 25! You have one week to practice treating your thoughts as questions rather than answers.

Self-enquiry isn't about doubting yourself into paralysis. It's about staying open to information that might change your understanding.

02/14/2026

02/13/2026

DBT Class Update — Assigned February 12, 2026 | Due February 19, 2026

Assignment: Distress Tolerance Worksheet 5 – Distracting with Wise Mind ACCEPTS

This week we're learning to use distraction wisely when you can't solve the problem right now and need to survive the crisis without making things worse.

Your task: Experiment with different ACCEPTS strategies (Activities, Contributing, Comparisons, Emotions, Pushing away, Thoughts, Sensations) and track what actually helps you get through crisis moments.

What you will work through:
• Identify crisis situations where solving the problem isn't possible right now
• Try at least 3 to 5 different ACCEPTS distraction strategies
• Use Activities to engage your mind and body in something absorbing
• Practice Contributing by doing something for someone else
• Experiment with Comparisons to gain perspective (use carefully)
• Introduce opposite Emotions through media or music
• Try Pushing away by mentally or physically creating distance from the problem
• Use alternative Thoughts to occupy your mind (counting, planning, reciting)
• Practice intense Sensations to ground yourself (ice, heat, sour or spicy tastes)
• Record your distress before and after each strategy

Key insight: Sometimes you can't solve the problem. The crisis is real, the pain is real, and there's nothing you can do right this second. Sitting with unbearable pain at full intensity doesn't make you stronger. It just makes you desperate. Strategic distraction is a life raft that keeps you afloat until you can swim to shore.

The goal is to survive crisis intensity without doing something destructive while you wait for the chance to actually address the situation. Distraction isn't avoidance when used wisely and temporarily. It's conscious relief when you need to get through the next hour.

The question isn't whether distraction is healthy. The question is whether it helps you survive the crisis without making things worse.

Due February 19. You have one week to experiment with all seven ACCEPTS strategies.

02/13/2026

RO-DBT Class Update
Assigned February 11, 2026 | Due February 18, 2026

Assignment: Radical Openness Worksheet 12.A - "Observe Openly" Skills

This week we're practicing noticing what's happening without immediately judging, fixing, or controlling it.

Your task: Catch yourself in evaluation and correction mode, then practice just observing instead.

What you will be doing:
• Notice when you automatically judge, analyze, or try to fix your internal experiences
• Practice observing thoughts, emotions, and sensations without reacting to them
• Allow experiences to be present without pushing them away or trying to change them
• Describe what you notice factually, without evaluation
• Record what happens when you observe openly versus when you immediately manage or control
• Notice any discomfort that comes up when you stop trying to control your experience

Key insight: Overcontrol's default is evaluation and correction. Emotion shows up? Analyze it. Thought appears? Judge it. Sensation emerges? Control it. This constant monitoring is exhausting and keeps you disconnected from your actual experience.

The goal is to learn that you can witness difficult experiences without being destroyed by them. A thought is just a thought. An emotion is just an emotion. You don't have to do anything about it right now. Open observation creates space. It teaches your nervous system that experiences can exist without immediate action.

The more you try to control your inner experience, the more rigid you become. Observation creates the flexibility you've been trying to force.

Due February 18. You have one week to practice observing without controlling.

02/06/2026

DBT Class Update — Assigned February 5, 2026 | Due February 12, 2026

Assignment: Distress Tolerance Worksheet 4B - Practicing the TIP Skill

This week we're experimenting with using your body to change your brain when emotions hit crisis levels.

Your task: Try different components of TIP (Temperature, Intense exercise, Paced breathing, Paired muscle relaxation) and track what actually brings your emotional intensity down.

What you will work through:

• Identify moments when your emotional intensity hits 7+ out of 10

• Experiment with cold water to activate your dive response

• Try intense exercise to burn off emotional energy and adrenaline

• Practice paced breathing with longer exhales to signal safety

• Use paired muscle relaxation to release physical tension

• Record your intensity before and after each TIP component

• Discover which techniques work best for your specific nervous system

Key insight: When you're at peak emotional intensity, your thinking brain is offline. You can't reason your way out of a 10 out of 10 panic attack or rage spiral. TIP works on your body first, your emotions second. You're using physiology to change brain chemistry, not trying to think your way to calm.

The goal is to find what actually works for YOUR body through experimentation. Some people respond powerfully to ice water. Others need intense movement. Some find paced breathing irritating when activated. This week is about collecting data on your own nervous system.

Due February 12. You have one week to experiment with all four TIP components.
TIP isn't meant to take you all the way to calm. It's meant to take you from "can't think at all" to "can think enough to use other skills."

02/05/2026

RO-DBT Class Homework Update
Assigned: February 4, 2026
Due: February 11, 2026

Assignment: Worksheet 11.B – Going Opposite to Fatalistic Mind

This week, we are challenging the voice that says “nothing will ever change” by acting as if change is possible.

Your task is to notice when fatalistic mind shows up and practice opposite action by behaving as though hope makes sense.

What you will be doing:
• Catch yourself in fatalistic thinking (for example: “what’s the point,” “nothing ever changes,” “this is just how I am”)
• Notice how fatalistic mind affects your behavior and keeps you stuck
• Ask yourself: “What would I do right now if I believed change was possible?”
• Do that thing, even if you do not believe it will work
• Record both the fatalistic thought and the opposite action you took
• Observe what happens when you act against hopelessness

Key insight:
Fatalistic mind is not wisdom. It is overcontrol’s way of protecting you from the risk of trying and failing again. When you believe nothing will change, you avoid the vulnerability of hope. That safety comes at a cost: you stop participating in your own life.

The goal is to act your way into a new way of thinking. You do not have to believe change is possible to behave as if it is. Sometimes the belief follows the behavior.

Going opposite to fatalistic mind is risky because it requires risking disappointment. Staying stuck, however, guarantees the very outcome you fear.

You have one week to practice going opposite to hopelessness. Start small. Fatalistic mind does not require grand gestures. One opposite action at a time.

01/30/2026

DBT Class Update
Assigned: January 29, 2026 | Due: February 5, 2026
Assignment: Distress Tolerance Worksheet 2 Practicing the STOP Skill

This week we're learning to create space between impulse and action when crisis hits.

Your task: Practice using STOP (Stop, Take a step back, Observe, Proceed mindfully) to interrupt impulsive reactions before they take over.

What you will work through:

• Identify situations where you felt an urge to act impulsively or destructively

• Practice stopping physically before reacting

• Take a step back mentally and emotionally from the situation

• Observe your thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and urges without judgment

• Proceed mindfully by choosing your next move based on your goals, not just your feelings

• Record what happened when you paused versus when you didn't

Key insight:
Crisis moments shrink your world down to one option: DO SOMETHING NOW. The STOP skill interrupts that tunnel vision. It creates a pause, even a tiny one, between the urge and the action. In that pause, you have choices.

The goal is to prove to yourself that you CAN pause, that you CAN observe, that you DO have other options even when it doesn't feel like it. The power isn't in avoiding all impulsive actions forever. The power is in creating space.

Due: February 5 – You have one week to practice stopping before reacting. Even a one second pause counts. That pause is where your power lives.

01/30/2026

RO-DBT Class Update
Assigned: January 28, 2026 | Due: February 4, 2026
Assignment: Radical Openness Worksheet 11.A – Being Kind to Fixed Mind

This week we're practicing something counterintuitive: responding to rigidity with compassion instead of criticism.

Your task: Notice when fixed mind shows up and practice self-kindness instead of self-judgment.

What you will be doing:

• Catch yourself in fixed mind or rigid thinking patterns

• Notice the harsh, critical voice that often accompanies rigidity

• Practice self-compassion when you notice yourself being inflexible

• Ask: "What is this rigidity trying to protect me from?"

• Record both the fixed mind moment and your compassionate response

• Observe whether self-kindness makes flexibility easier or harder to access

Key insight:
Beating yourself up for being rigid just creates more rigidity. When you catch yourself in fixed mind and immediately attack yourself with thoughts like "I'm so inflexible, why can't I just be more open?", you’ve just layered more control on top of the original control.

The goal is to change your relationship with rigidity. Fixed mind isn’t your enemy it’s a protection strategy your nervous system developed because, at some point, being cautious and controlled kept you safe. Self compassion creates space for genuine flexibility, while self criticism just builds more walls.

Remember: Being kind to rigidity doesn’t mean giving up on growth. It means recognizing that shaming yourself will never lead to openness.

Due: February 4 – You have one week to practice being kind to fixed mind!