Dialectical Behavior Therapy
The goal of DBT is to help clients build a life that they experience as manageable and worth living. DBT focuses on building on a person’s strengths and teaching specific skills to help manage emotional responses and interactions.
In DBT, the client and the therapist work together to set goals that are meaningful to the client. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a specific type of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy developed in the late 1980s by psychologist Marsha M. Linehan to help treat borderline personality disorder. Since its development, it is effective in managing anxiety, depression, urges to self-harm or use substances, and more. These skills can be used by anyone anywhere at anytime.
The theory behind the approach is that some people are prone to intense or strong emotional reactions in some situations, primarily those found in romantic, family, and friend relationships. DBT theory suggests that some people’s arousal levels in certain situations can increase far more quickly than the average person’s and take a significant amount of time to return to baseline arousal levels.
Dialectical behavior therapy emphasizes the psychosocial aspects of treatment. It blends methods from various practices including Eastern mindfulness techniques. The benefits of DBT is that it offers practical skills that can help manage intense emotions and improve your ability to communicate. It can have a positive impact on relationships with others, professional and personal. Below is a summary of skills that can be used to manage depression, anxiety, increase self-awareness, improve self-talk, and improve communication.
Overview of DBT Skills
The 4 areas of skills taught to improve relationships and emotions.
Mindfulness: The practice of being fully aware and present in this one moment.
Distress Tolerance: How to tolerate pain in difficult situations, not change it.
Interpersonal Effectiveness: How to ask for what you want and say no while maintaining self-respect and relationships with others.
Emotion Regulation: How to change emotions that you want to change.
Mindfulness
is the act of being strongly aware of what you're sensing and feeling — without interpretation or judgment. It is being deliberate about where you put your thoughts and your mind. By increasing this skill, you can learn to live more in tune with your feelings and your activities.
Distress Tolerance.
It is possible to learn specific skills to help manage distressing emotions. The reality is that pain and distress are inevitable part of life. At times refusing to accept this reality can cause and increase a person’s suffering. Distress tolerance teaches techniques intended to help someone endure a crisis without using self-harming behaviors, such as self-harm, attempting suicide, drugs, or alcohol, or even engaging in destructive relationship patterns. The goal is to help us get through situations without making them worse.
Coping Skills
Self-soothing
Using distractions
Improving the moment
Identify pros and cons
Acceptance
Emotional Regulation.
Emotional regulation skills help you recognize the role emotions play in your decision-making and often on your actions. Learning ways to manage emotions can have a positive impact on how you change or adapt to a situation so that the outcome can be more favorable. It is possible to learn new ways to respond to situations and learn to new perspectives. Even with severe trauma and abandonment experiences, these skills can help change perspectives and attitudes that can lead to improved emotions and experiences.
Learn to identify and label emotions without judgment
Identify obstacles to changing emotions, practice redirecting thoughts
Reduce vulnerability to emotional mind, self-care methods
Increase positive emotional events
Increase mindfulness to current emotions
Take opposite action
Apply distress tolerance techniques or practice mindfulness activities.
Deep breathing
Interpersonal Effectiveness - Improve Communication.
In DBT, this refers to skills that help us tend to our relationships, balance priorities versus demands, balance “wants” and “shoulds,” and build a sense of mastery and self-respect. The goal of therapy is to help individuals become more aware of how their behavior affects relationship, and then make positive changes when appropriate. Learn skills for communicating with others in a clear and effective manner.