Boldly You Psychotherapy

Boldly You Psychotherapy Boldly You Psychotherapy is the private therapy practice of psychologist Bethany Walker, PhD.

I had fun making this one! I am learning a lot about emotions in the RO DBT therapist training! Being able to identify y...
04/01/2026

I had fun making this one! I am learning a lot about emotions in the RO DBT therapist training!

Being able to identify your own emotions accurately is such an important skill.

Knowing about these and other complex emotions is part of it. But being willing to take an honest look inside and acknowledge and own what you’re feeling is another challenge.

Suppressing these emotions or pretending you don’t feel them will come at a cost to you and your relationships. If this is a problem for you, consider working with an RO DBT therapist. Check out the therapist directory on radicallyopen.net!

Our brains do TONS of work 💪 for us outside of our conscious awareness. They work rapidly to filter out less relevant in...
02/19/2026

Our brains do TONS of work 💪 for us outside of our conscious awareness. They work rapidly to filter out less relevant information, categorize or make sense of information, and hone in on important information.

If our brains didn’t do this work behind the scenes and we had to consciously process everything, we wouldn’t be able to function in our daily lives. 😵‍💫

One type of information our brains deal with every day is other people’s facial expressions 😄😠 and other social signals. Because the survival of the human species depended on us living and belonging in tribes 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 our brains evolved to pick up on certain signals from other humans.

Our brains automatically pick up on cues like others’ facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language because they are relevant to whether we are “in” ✅ or “out” ❌ of the group.

Also, this happens fast. ⏱️ Like REALLY fast! Our brains and bodies actually start reacting to these types of stimuli before we are even consciously aware of what we are processing!

One more thing for today, and this is a BIG one, there’s a bias to this automatic social information processing. And I bet you can guess which way our brains are biased. When we encounter ❓ambiguous ❓social signals from others, our brains are biased toward interpreting the signal as disapproving. In other words, when someone is hard to read 😐 in a split second you may get a sense that they don’t like you.

The flip side of that is if you are often hard for others to read 🤔 it’s possible for this to impact your relationships. If you’d like to learn more about this, check out the Radically Open Blog at https://www.radicallyopen.net/blog/

Radical openness is the ✨RO✨ in RO DBT (Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy).It’s not the same thing as radical ...
01/28/2026

Radical openness is the ✨RO✨ in RO DBT (Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy).

It’s not the same thing as radical acceptance, which is a core element of traditional DBT. Radical acceptance is about letting go of fighting reality, whereas radical openness challenges our perceptions of reality.

🧐 Radical openness is about pursuing truth while humbly acknowledging that truth is elusive.

When we encounter unwanted feedback, we may use many forms of avoidance, such as focusing on regulating our discomfort 😢, people pleasing 🫠, or stubbornly insisting we’re right. 😤

Instead, we can practice radical openness by acknowledging our discomfort and turning toward it while asking, “What is it that I might need to learn here?” (Respecting the elusiveness of truth, it’s more about the question than the answer. It’s about opening yourself up and acknowledging your potential fallibility.) And then taking action in the moment that gets the job done while considering others’ needs.

As you can imagine, there’s a lot to radical openness. After all, it is in the name of RO DBT! If you want to learn more about it, you can check out the Radically Open Blog at https://www.radicallyopen.net/blog/ 🤍

I’m so excited to finally be completing the RO-DBT therapist training series. I hope to have Levels 1 and 2 completed by...
01/05/2026

I’m so excited to finally be completing the RO-DBT therapist training series. I hope to have Levels 1 and 2 completed by the end of February, and as I go along, I’ll share some of what I’m learning here.

✅ Self-control is what helps us inhibit impulses, delay gratification, and pursue long term goals.

🤔 Self-control is great! But is there such a thing as having TOO MUCH self-control?

It turns out the answer is YES! Psychological wellbeing is actually highest for people with ✨moderate✨ self-control. Psychological wellbeing actually decreases ⬇️ for people with too much self-control, termed “overcontrol,” (and also for people with low-self-control).

People with an overcontrolled style are more likely to develop disorders such as Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) and Anorexia, whereas people with an undercontrolled style are more at risk of developing disorders like Borderline Personality Disorder or Conduct Disorders.

RO-DBT targets specific deficits in overcontrolled individuals which are theorized to lead to emotional loneliness. More on that later 😉

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Glenview, IL
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