What is Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

What is Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is a type of cognitive behavioural therapy which was developed by Marsha Linehan in the late 80’s. To help better understand her own struggles with borderline personality disorder Dr Linehan, created the psychotherapy which has also been used for many other mental health disorders.

DBT is a type of talk therapy which has a cognitive approach to help realise triggers and how to cope with them. Some people are more prone than others to react in a more intense way in certain emotional situations, usually romantic or family and friend relationships, which DBT theory suggests can take a significant amount of time to return back to normal – this is where DBT therapy comes in.

DBT Therapy helps to manage those feelings of extreme swings in emotion and help to see the world as it is and understand why situations arise.

Modules of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

There are 4 modules of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy which are:

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one of the essential skills taught in DBT therapy. It comprises two parts, “what” skills and “how” skills.

Observe, Describe and Participate are the core “what” skills. They answer the question, “what do I do to practice core mindfulness skills?” Whereas “how” skills include Non-judgmentally, One-mindfully and Effectively which answer the question “How do I practice core mindfulness skills?”

Interpersonal Effectiveness

DBT Therapy also includes Interpersonal Effectiveness – how you interact with people around you and in your personal relationships. This is similar to what is taught in some assertiveness and interpersonal problem-solving classes. These skills may include effective strategies for asking what one needs, how to assertively say “no” and learning to cope with an inevitable personal conflict.

This module aims to focus on situations where the objective is to change something or resist changes someone else is trying to make. These skills are taught to try to maximise the chances of that person’s goals in a specific situation whilst at the same time not damaging their relationship or self respect.

Distress Tolerance

Distress tolerance teaches the ability to accept and a non-evaluative and non-judgemental way about a situation. Whilst many mental health treatments focus on changing distressing events, DBT therapy teaches accepting and finding a meaning for and tolerating distress. There are four sets of crisis survival strategies taught including: distracting, self-soothing, improving the moment and thinking of the pros and cons.

Emotion Regulation

Those with a borderline personality disorder or those who may have suicidal thoughts are typically more emotionally intense than others with frequent bouts of anger, frustration, depression and anxiety. These types of patients may benefit from emotion regulation which includes:

·         Learning how to identify and label emotions properly

·         How to identify obstacles to changing emotions

·         Increasing mindfulness to current emotions

·         Taking opposite action

·         Applying distress tolerance techniques

·         Increasing positive emotional events

·         Reducing vulnerability to an ‘emotion mind’