Alec Miller and Jill Rathus published a book called Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Suicidal Adolescents. In this book are some of the handouts used in adolescent DBT skills groups. They list three dialectical dilemmas that parents may face with their teenagers, which include the following:

Being too loose vs. being too strict

Making light of problem behaviors vs. Making too much of typical behaviors

Holding on too tight vs. Forcing independence too soon

Moving to an extreme end of a spectrum can = BEING STUCK, which can easily generate hopelessness and frustation. Dialectics is about finding how two things can both sometimes be true at the same time, and that finding different perspectives can help us move out of extreme polarities. Can you see how being too extreme on either end of these dilemmas could cause problems? Think of your own adolescence. The “Middle Path” proposed by Miller and Rathus is about finding the middle ground of two extremes.