Thoughts on Record: Podcast of the Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Dr. Jesse Finkelstein - A DBT Guide to Navigating Stress, Emotions, and Relationships
Jan 6, 2026
Dr. Jesse Finkelstein, a licensed clinical psychologist and DBT trainer, discusses his book Real Skills for Real Life. He emphasizes how DBT can help navigate stress and emotional challenges through practical skills. The conversation covers the balance of acceptance and change, the universality of suffering, and the importance of reducing shame. They also explore how modern distractions impede emotional resilience and the significance of radical acceptance in processing trauma. Listeners gain insights into actionable tools for emotional regulation and interpersonal effectiveness.
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Normalize Suffering To Reduce Shame
- Normalizing suffering reduces shame and isolation and opens access to evidence-based help.
- Jesse emphasizes clinicians should communicate shared humanity and personal experience with pain.
DBT's Robustness Enables Wide Use
- DBT was built for extreme cases but its robust techniques work broadly like a Formula One car applied to normal roads.
- Core value: improving people's relationship to emotions makes DBT widely applicable.
Accept Reality; Attend To Emotions
- Practice radical acceptance as acknowledging reality, not approving harm or wrongdoing.
- Use mindfulness of current emotions to approach and habituate to difficult feelings instead of avoiding them.
