Rethinking Dysregulation

Mental health professionals can't get enough buzzwords & jargon. We have dozens of terms for self esteem. We are forever repacking CBT into cognitive triads, squares and other geometric configurations. There's one word that is the undisputed champion of all therapeutic gibberish.  

Dysregulation.  

It is a catchall term for everything. If something means everything, it means nothing. 

I work in a school. If a co-worker tells me a student is dysregulated, the logical question is "What is the student doing?"  

Are they actively throwing chairs and cursing at everyone (anger)?
Are they crying uncontrollably (depression)?
Are they huddled under a desk, too riddled with panic to move (anxiety)?
Are they running the halls, unable to control their physical urge to do so (ADD)? 

If a term is so opaque and open to interpretation, then it has no practical value. It's like going to a restaurant and telling the waiter "I want food." 

This sentence was actually written in a student's file: 

"Client struggles with emotion dysregulation, particularly associated with anger and frustration."

If someone struggles with anger and frustration, then say they struggle with anger and frustration.

We as a profession should help simplify and clarify life for our clients. We should not be gumming up the works with nonsense talk. 

We already have hundreds of words & phrases to describe the human condition. We can be sad, blue, in a funk, down, depressed, blah, in a rut, bummed out, dejected, miserable, out of sorts, off my game. 

We can be angry, infuriated, outraged, pissed off, at my wits end, irritated, exasperated, irked, peeved. 

Rogerian therapy teaches us that we should speak the language of our clients. No client has ever told me they are dysregulated. I hope they never do.  

Rogers also teaches us that we should meet our clients where they are.  

We should not be dragging them into our muck.




For information on individual counseling, contact me at bradleyjabel@gmail.com