Skillful Job Search Part 2: Integrating DBT Skills

This is the second of four posts discussing our approach to helping OPI Living and OPI Intensive participants with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) find and keep a job. Read Part 1 – Obtaining a Job with BPD .

The first thing we do to help participants tackle the job search process is to create a resumé and thoroughly review the specifics of each job. We examine duties, shifts, types of supervision and all the little details that made each experience unique, noting both the positives and negatives. Since many of our participants get discouraged with their repeated patterns of obtaining and losing jobs, reading these details can bring up anxiety. This is where the collaboration between OPI Living’s Department of Volunteer & Career Services counselors and OPI Intensive’s DBT-trained therapists comes into play.

Therapists work with participants to utilize the skills in the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) model to manage emotions like frustration and anxiety. These skills might include, but are not limited to, self-soothing techniques, distress tolerance, taking breaks, deep breathing and communicating frustrations with their DEAR (Describe, Express, Assert, Reinforce) skills  in interpersonal effectiveness. Such skills can be utilized during job search sessions, especially when participants would rather act out in their emotions and give up. This impulsivity with black-and-white thinking is something we see in many of our clients.

Career counselors encourage participants to imagine an ideal, but realistic job description that would best suit them so they have a positive frame of reference to fall back on. This helps participants stay on task, in the moment, and diminishes the overwhelming emotions that job postings can bring. While each participant is different, many have job success with structure, clearly defined job roles and a genuine interest in the field of choice.

Our experience is that participants will tend to apply for and obtain any job, regardless of their interest, because of their urgency to stop the cycle. There may also be external pressure from parents, guardians, partners, etc. to get and keep a job. Since a lack of interest in their work seems to correlate with self-sabotaging and impulsive behaviors, it is important to capitalize on the positives, interest areas and guidelines.

Part 3 – DEAR Skills on the Job  will address how participants utilize DEAR and other skills on the job to build reliability and consistency.