![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.gif)
Learning Objective 1: know Emotional Literacy Program Adopting Dialectic Behavioral Therapy.
Learning Objective 2: utilize an effective program.
In Japan, mood disorder, compulsive disorders, and stress-related disorder in patients in mental clinic to patient is on an upward trend. The authors have been conducting an Emotional Literacy Program since 2009, held once a week for 90 minutes per session targeting patients of the day/night care of an outpatient psychiatric unit. The program adopts an open group style with the maximum number of 10 participants per group, and any patient who wishes to participate can do so. At the beginning, the program was based on the Emotional Intelligence theory by Salovey and Mayer, but currently, it also introduces skill training with dialectic approach. The purpose of the present study was to elucidate the efficacy of the program conducted by the authors.
Methods:
The data and program records obtained through observation of the sessions conducted in the past three years were examined to extract the program contents that may have brought benefits to the sessions, and these contents were qualitatively and inductively analyzed.
Results:
Mindfulness and sharing in the Emotional Literacy Program were helpful for the patients to distance themselves from painful emotions and objectively observe their emotions. Furthermore, the skill training in dialectic behavioral therapy gave confidence to the program participants about their coping approaches for healthily controlling the emotions that they had unconsciously applied. The participants increased the patterns of coping approaches by sharing their own patterns within the groups.
Conclusion:
The efficacy of an Emotional Literacy Program adopting dialectic behavioral therapy was recognized. In future, we need to prepare a new program by intensifying the session contents that have been found effective by the study, and conduct scale-based assessments.