Dialectical Behaviour Therapy: An Overview




Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, also known as DBT, is a type of cognitive behavioural psychotherapy. Developed by Marsha Linehan in the 1980s to treat borderline personality disorder but it is also commonly used to treat other kinds of mental health disorders.

What is DBT?


As said before, DBT is a type of psychotherapy, primarily a talking therapy which uses a cognitive behaviour approach. DBT concentrates on the psychosocial aspects when it comes to treatment.

The theory behind DBT is that some of us are more prone to have intense and out of the ordinary reactions toward certain situations. This type of behaviour is mostly seen in romantic, family and friend relationships.

The theory suggests that arousal levels can increase in these situations far more quickly for certain people and can take longer to return to a normal level following that. Due to the nature of the extreme mood swings many people are diagnosed with borderline personality disorder as a result, seeing them jumping from one crisis to another.

Many people who suffer with borderline personality disorder have no idea how to cope with the extreme reactions and few people understand, especially family and friends. DBT training aims to teach skills that will help those to get through particularly troublesome situations.

What are the components of DBT?


A person can identify their strengths with support groups. These groups help build on those strengths so that the individual can feel better about themselves and their life.
Identifying thoughts, beliefs and assumptions that seem to make an individual’s life harder can help people to learn different ways of thinking that will make life more bearable.

It requires constant attention to keep good relationships between therapists and clients. DBT encourages a collaborative effort to work out problems in relationships with the therapist but also the other way around. DBT provides homework and assignments for clients to help them use their new learnt skills in their everyday lives and relationships to help them to soothe themselves when they get upset. These skills are reviewed weekly in groups helping those struggling learn from others too.

Modules of DBT


Mindfulness


Mindfulness is one of the essential skills taught in DBT. These skills are taught in groups and concentrate on three “what” skills: observe, describe and participate, and three “how” skills: non-judgmentally, one-mindfully and effectively.

Interpersonal Effectiveness


Interpersonal response patterns, how you interact with people around you and in personal relationships, are taught in DBT skills training and share similarities to some assertiveness and interpersonal problem-solving scenarios. Skills include effective strategies such as, how to assertively say “no” and learning to cope with inevitable conflict.

Distress Tolerance


Distress tolerance focuses on accepting, finding and meaning for and tolerating stress, unlike other mental health treatments which concentrate on changing distressing events and circumstances. Distress tolerance is a natural progression from mindfulness by accepting a non-evaluative and non-judgemental fashion for a client’s self and others.
Emotion Regulation

People with borderline personality disorder or who may be suicidal are usually emotionally intense and frequently angry, frustrated, depressed or anxious. Those that are dealing with this may benefit from emotion regulation. Emotion regulation includes:

  • ·         Learning to identify emotions and label them
  • ·         Identifying obstacles and changing emotion
  • ·         Reducing vulnerability to emotions
  • ·         Increasing positive emotions
  • ·         Taking opposite action


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