Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was initially developed to treat those with borderline personality disorder. Research has since shown that DBT can successfully treat people with depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, eating disorders, and substance abuse.

DBT offers individuals comprehensive skills to manage painful memories and emotions and decrease conflicts in their relationships. This modality focuses on 4 specific areas of therapeutic skills. These are:

• Mindfulness – Helps individuals be present in the current moment.
• Distress tolerance – increases an individual’s tolerance to negative emotion.
• Emotion regulation – strategies to manage intense emotions that are often the root cause of problems in an individual’s life.
• Interpersonal effectiveness – techniques that allow an individual to communicate with others in a confident, assertive way that maintains self-respect and strengthens relationships.

DBT essentially helps individuals find ways to manage their negative emotions so they can feel balanced, in control and able to interact respectfully and successfully. The message at the heart of DBT is acceptance and change.

DBT treatment usually consists of a combination of DBT skills groups and individual therapy sessions. The individual therapy sessions allow individuals to have one-on-one contact with a trained therapist who will help you apply DBT skills to your daily life, address any obstacle that may arise and keep you motivated! The DBT skills group interactions will help you practice skills with others and offer mutual support.