What is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy?
Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a form of talk therapy based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of psychotherapeutic treatment that helps you to recognize and change disturbing or destructive thought patterns that have a negative influence on your behavior and emotions. It also assists you to improve your coping skills in relation to transitional challenges in life.
Dialectical behavioral therapy is a sub-branch of cognitive behavioral therapy. It has been specially adapted for people who feel emotions very strongly and exhibit self-destructive behaviors. It has evolved to become an evidence-based psychotherapy approach that can be used to treat several mental health conditions. Its main objective is to teach individuals how to develop healthy ways to cope with stress, regulate their emotions, improve their relationships with others, and live in the moment.
What are the Uses of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy?
DBT was initially developed as a technique to treat individuals with suicidal ideations and borderline personality disorder. But it has been adapted to treat other mental health issues that endanger an individual’s emotional well-being, relationships, work, and safety.
A borderline personality disorder is a condition that results in acute emotional distress. People may have strong and sudden bursts of anger and aggression, rapid mood swings, and high sensitivity to rejection.
With its major emphasis on emotion regulation skills, DBT is finding application as a treatment for a wide range of mental health problems, such as:
- Non-suicidal self-injury
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Bulimia (eating disorder)
- Depression
- Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
- Substance use disorder
- Bipolar disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Personality disorders, including borderline personality disorder (BPD)
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
How Does Dialectical Behavior Therapy Work?
‘Dialectical’ refers to trying to understand how two things that appear opposite could both be true. For instance, accepting yourself and changing your behavior may feel contradictory. But DBT teaches that it is feasible for you to accomplish both these goals together.
Dialectical behavior therapy can be divided into 4 phases:
- Phase 1: During the beginning of treatment, the most serious and self-destructive behaviors are the first things addressed. This may include issues such as self-injury or suicidal behaviors.
- Phase 2: Next, therapy moves on to address problems that impact a person's quality of life, such as their interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation skills, and capacity to tolerate distress.
- Phase 3: The next step is to focus on problems related to interpersonal relationships and self-esteem.
- Phase 4: At this juncture, therapy is focused on helping patients get the most out of their lives, including finding ways to strengthen their relationships, pursue their life goals, and experience greater happiness.
What are the Components of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy?
Standard comprehensive dialectical behavior therapy comprises four components:
- Individual therapy with a trained professional where a patient's learned behavioral skills are adapted to their personal life challenges.
- Group skills training where patients are taught behavioral skills in a group setting with the opportunity to interact with others and role-play new skills.
- Phone coaching in which patients can call the therapist between sessions to receive guidance on coping with a difficult situation they are currently in.
- Consultation group where a group of DBT professionals meets regularly to assist one another to navigate potential stressors, stay motivated, and deliver good therapy.
These components are used to specially focus on providing therapeutic skills to patients in four key areas.
- Mindfulness helps to keep individuals present-focused and slows down emotional reactivity, affording people time to muster healthy coping skills in the middle of distressing situations.
- DBT also instills distress tolerance, the capability to endure negative emotion rather than needing to escape from it or acting in ways that make difficult situations worse.
- Emotion regulation strategies give patients the power to manage and change strong emotions that are causing problems in their life.
- DBT also teaches techniques of interpersonal effectiveness, enabling a patient to communicate with others in a method that is assertive, maintains self-respect, and strengthens relationships.
Summary
Dialectical behavioral therapy is a comprehensive and multifaceted therapy designed to assist patients to cope with extreme emotional suffering and, often, self-injurious behavior. Many patients seeking DBT have undergone other types of therapy without experiencing notable improvement. DBT incorporates many of the techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy and assists patients identify and challenge the varieties of d
Dr. Priti Kothari provides comprehensive psychiatric evaluations and individualized treatment recommendations for children, adolescents, and adults in Boca Raton and Weston, Florida. If you wish to be advised on the most appropriate treatment, please call us at to schedule an appointment
