Is suffering inevitable? Is pain inevitable? In DBT, we teach that pain in life is inevitable but that suffering is not. Suffering, from this perspective, happens when we experience “ordinary life pain” and then reject that pain or the circumstances causing it. This concept has been a focal point in therapy and in my consulting practice...

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is guided by a number of core assumptions about the nature of human behavior and about the process of treatment. Over the next few weeks, I will describe each in turn. One that is high on my list right now, however, is the treatment assumption that clients cannot fail DBT. People often...