Dialectical Behavior Therapy
The theory behind DBT posits that certain people tend to react intensely to emotional situations, which over time, can lead to problematic relationships with friends, family, and romantic partners. These individuals often experience emotional overload, and frequently shift from one crisis to another, resulting in strained relationships.
DBT helps individuals create improved coping skills to reduce their intense emotional reactions and improve self-regulation.
In addition, DBT prioritizes validation of an individual’s positive qualities and strengths, instead of solely focusing on the negative aspects they wish to change. This approach can help individuals feel better about themselves and their life.
DBT Therapy has four main components that have been proven to help clients with a variety of mental health issues: mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness skills aim to improve an individual’s ability to stay present in the moment and understand their emotions. The mindfulness component of DBT teaches individuals to reflect and train their brain to avoid dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Mindfulness skills include observing thoughts, listening to oneself, and acknowledging fears.
Practicing mindfulness helps individuals avoid taking things personally and improves communication with others by listening more fully to their messages. Mindfulness is practiced throughout all stages of DBT and reinforced through weekly homework assignments. The more you practice these skills, the more you can benefit from them
Emotional Regulation
Emotional Regulation strategies help individuals manage intense emotions that are causing problems in their life. DBT suggests that a person can reduce the intensity of an emotion or change the emotion all together.
Emotional regulation involves learning to identify and manage the intensity of negative emotions.
This can be done through a variety of DBT techniques:
“Positive Self-Talk”: This promotes self-compassion and self-confidence.
“Cope Ahead”: This involves planning and preparing for potentially stressful situations in advance, so that you’re better equipped to handle them when they arise.
“Opposite Action”: Taking actions that are opposite to our intense emotions, in order to regulate them.
Distress Tolerance
Distress Tolerance is aimed to help people tolerate physical or emotional pain during a crisis. People with a low distress tolerance can become overwhelmed by even mild levels of stress and react with a high level of intensity.
An important feature of distress tolerance is the concept of radical acceptance. This refers to experiencing the situation and accepting the reality of it when it is something the person cannot change. By practicing radical acceptance, a client may become less vulnerable to intense and prolonged negative feelings.
Within the distress tolerance module, there are four skill categories:
- Distracting
- Self-soothing
- Improving the moment
- Focusing on pros and cons
Interpersonal Effectiveness
Interpersonal Effectiveness skills are crucial in improving relationships and communication with others. DBT teaches individuals to be more self-aware and in control of their own emotionality. DBT teaches clients to approach conversations in a thoughtful and more empathic manner, rather than reacting with intense emotions, that can interfere with communication. Interpersonal effectiveness skills include the ability to ask for what you need and to keep your values intact, rather than just give into others.
The three components of interpersonal effectiveness are:
Objective Effectiveness: the tangible outcome of the interaction
Relationship Effectiveness: maintaining a conflict-free relationship
Self-respect Effectiveness: maintaining personal values and dignity
Who Can Benefit from Dialectical Behavior Therapy?
DBT is an effective treatment for a wide range of mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. It can also be beneficial for individuals who struggle with emotion regulation, interpersonal relationships, and self-esteem.
Throughout DBT, weekly homework assignments are assigned to allow clients to practice and apply the new skills in real-life situations. This reinforces the techniques and helps individuals integrate them into their daily lives.
