Mental Health Competencies

Mental health competencies can be divided into five categories:

  1. Psychological well-being
  2. Strategies of Emotional regulation
  3. Emotional Intelligence
  4. Dialectical Behavior Therapy
  5. Basic Physiological Competencies

 

Each category has its own lists of competencies with some overlap.

 

Because mental health is complex and mostly a mystery, the competencies below, even in their entirety, are not a comprehensive view of mental health.

 

Instead, the listed competencies are access points of mental health functioning. Look at these lists as you would a grammar book that, although not a  language itself, improves fluency.

 

No single mental health competency stands alone; all the competencies are interrelated.

 

Upcoming blog posts will feature individual competencies.

 

Here are the categories and their lists:

 

Psychological Well-being1Ryff, C. D. & Keyes, L. C. M. (1995). The Structure of Psychological Well-Being Revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 69, 719-727 https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0022-3514.69.4.719

  1. Autonomy
  2. Environment mastery
  3. Personal growth
  4. Positive relations with others
  5. Purpose in life
  6. Self-acceptance

 

Strategies of Emotional Regulation2Liu, D. Y., Springstein, T., Tuck A. B., English, T., & Thompson, R. J. (2023). Everyday Emotion Regulation Goals, Motives, and Strategies in Current and Remitted Major Depressive Disorder: An Experience Sampling Study. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science 132, 594–609. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000831. I cite this article because it includes in its body the currently accepted strategies of emotional regulation used in scientific research, although that was not the authors’ primary intent.

  1. Social sharing
  2. Acceptance
  3. Savoring
  4. Reappraisal
  5. Suppression*
  6. Distraction*
  7. Hedonic Activities*

*Suppression, distraction, and hedonic activities can be effective strategies of emotional regulation in the short term. Using them at the expense of the first four strategies is a recipe for addiction.

 

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)3Marsha M. Linehan created DBT. Her source book is monumental. Here is how to find it: https://www.guilford.com/search/Cognitive-Behavioral+Treatment+of+Borderline+Personality+Disorder. A more accessible book, which I successfully used chapter-by-chapter with many patients, can be found at: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/715671/self-directed-dbt-skills-by-kiki-fehling-phd-and-elliot-weiner-phd/9780593435984/

  1. Mindfulness
  2. Distress tolerance
  3. Emotional regulation
  4. Interpersonal effectiveness

Emotional Intelligence4In my opinion Daniel Goleman’s book, first published in 1995, is the bible of emotional intelligence. Here is how to find it: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/69105/emotional-intelligence-by-daniel-goleman/

  1. Self-awareness
  2. Self-regulation
  3. Motivation
  4. Ethics
  5. Social skill

Basic Physiological Competencies5https://dictionary.apa.org/physiological-need

  1. Sleeping
  2. Breathing
  3. Hydrating
  4. Eating
  5. Moving

The above lists are the works of prominent psychologists and social workers whose names are in the footnotes. All I did was put the lists in one place.

 

Michael DeCaria, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychology

24 April 2026

 

About the featured image: Looking into the maw of Chesapeake Bay from Ocean View Beach Park, Norfolk, Virginia. (Photograph by the author)