As practitioners of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), we are no strangers to crises.

Self-injurious behaviors are prevalent issues our clients often report upon entering treatment. Those who practice DBT are aware that the modality encompasses an array of strategies and skills that address these specific life-threatening concerns.

Some strategies are employed in therapy sessions to help clients to address their problems with their therapists, and other skills are utilized to reinforce clients’ ability to self-manage outside the office in their daily lives.

One of the most powerful tools we teach, however, is one that emphasizes not a specific skill or strategy, but to highlight the freedom of choice.

To choose is to be free.

For many people, having the ability to choose empowers them with a profound sense of control. This is no different for people participating in active treatment with us, whom many often feel trapped, either emotionally or physically, in the painful dilemmas they find themselves to be in.

So here are five ways to deal with any problem:

1. Solve the problem, if it is solvable.

The key is active problem solving. We can become active participants in the resolution of our problems. Spectators don’t win championships, active competitors do. Active problem solving includes describing the problem, checking the facts surrounding the problem, generating all possible solutions, selecting a solution, implementing the solution, and evaluating the effectiveness of the solution.

2. Change the way you feel about it.

For a variety of reasons, sometimes, a problem is simply unsolvable. We can simply choose how we feel about it. Just because we feel like crap, it doesn’t mean we have to be crap. Changing how we feel about a specific problem could also mean reaching acceptance. Much like active problem solving, changing how we feel about something requires effort, especially accepting it. To accept something is not to give up. To accept is to make a full commitment with our whole being repeatedly.

To accept is to free ourselves from suffering.

3. Cope with it.

Sometimes the key factor in problem-resolution is time. Coping with a problem, then, naturally provides us with the commodity of time. This may involve using crisis survival skills. This many involve accessing social support and practicing being more willing. Much like the previous two ways, this also requires effort and wisdom. No different than the last two ways, what this method promises is a path out of hell.

4. Stay miserable.

Misery does not fall from the sky. Things that we do not wish to happen may occur randomly, as that is the nature of the universe, but to be miserable is an active choice. The implication of this is profound, because if we can choose to be miserable, then we have the power to be free from it as well.

5. Make it worse: Much like we can be active participants in solving a problem, we can also be active participants in making the problem worse. Having this as a choice reminds us what life can be like without using our wise mind. Pain is a part of life; it is what we are born with. However, suffering is not, and choosing to make it worse, is to turn pain into suffering.

As practitioners, we utilize this tool ourselves in our very own lives. It is important to note here that this tool is not a replacement for risk assessment, crisis intervention, or distress tolerance skills training. This tool serves as a road map for clients to choose how they wish to address the chaos in their lives. To choose is to be free, and our choices, if used wisely, can build a life that is not only free from suffering, but also worth living.