DBT House / DBH-A01-3
My House My Meaning — Clinician dialogue
Guide a collaborative conversation about my house my meaning while checking fit and participant choice.
15 minutes · Clinician script · Mental health professionals
Fictional example: Riley prefers a community courtyard to a detached house.
Use within your training and assessment of readiness. A house can be an optional metaphor for organizing coping and support.
Invite and obtain permission
Offer: "Would it be useful to explore my house my meaning using an ordinary or fictional example? We can adapt it, observe, or stop." Ask what the person wants from the conversation.
Elicit before teaching
Ask: "How does this show up, if at all, in your own words?" Offer this idea tentatively: A house can be an optional metaphor for organizing coping and support. Ask what fits and what does not.
Guide the task
Choose a house, apartment, garden, or other personally meaningful structure and assign your own meanings to its spaces. Ask for permission before giving an example. Use this fictional illustration if useful: Riley prefers a community courtyard to a detached house.
Reflect and check accuracy
Reflect only what was offered: "I heard you describe ___. What did I miss?" Ask: What metaphor fits your experience without assuming everyone has safe housing? Avoid assigning motives or interpreting silence as agreement.
Respond to a mismatch
If the person rejects the frame, say: "Thank you for correcting it. What would be more useful?" Return to their language or choose a different approach.
Close with agency
Ask which observation, question, or support request the person wants to keep. Confirm a manageable ending and appropriate follow-up; do not turn a tentative possibility into a homework obligation.
Prompts for this resource
- Readiness, permission, cultural context, and access needs to check:
- What metaphor fits your experience without assuming everyone has safe housing?
- What would tell me to adapt, stop, or seek supervision?
Conceptual background
Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training: Fundamentals — Behavioral Tech Institute
Background on the approach only. Original exercises and wording are by More Than Therapy with AI assistance; the source does not validate or endorse these materials.