Submitted by Charlay Yates MT-BC

“When you think in extremes, you often don’t get an accurate view of the world, which complicates decision-making. Finding the middle path will help you manage those wonderfully intense emotions and also not allow them to impair you in making effective decisions and choices.  Why is it effective to find the middle path in your thinking and behavior?”

And how do we find that middle path?

Have some percussion instruments or drums available for your group.

Each patient is then given a card with an “extreme” style of playing on it (fast, slow, loud, soft, complex, simple, steady, unsteady).

One patient will play something on their drum and the person with the other end of the extreme will respond. This way the patient must practice listening.

Patient will identify how they were able identify that they were the other extreme.

Each pair of patients will then complete an improvisation where they combine their two extremes to find the middle path.

Patients will discuss that process. Patients will also discuss the experience of shifting from extremes to the “middle path.”

For more about DBT informed Music Therapy visit dbtmusic.com