What is DBT?

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) focuses on the psychosocial aspects of people’s behavior. The theory behind the approach is that some people are prone to react in a more intense and out-of-the-ordinary manner toward certain emotional situations, primarily those found in relationships with people whom they are close to. It suggests that some people’s distress in such situations can increase far more quickly than the average person’s, attain a higher level of emotional stimulation, and take much more time to return to a calmer emotional state.

DBT helps the person identify their strengths and build on them while recognizing thoughts, beliefs and assumptions that make their life harder. It is a highly collaborative approach with close attention paid to the relationship between the therapist and the client. People in DBT treatment are encouraged to work out problems with their therapist that they have in their relationships

DBT includes four sets of behavioral skills.

·      Mindfulness: the practice of being fully aware and present in this one moment.

·      Distress Tolerance: how to tolerate pain in difficult situations, not change it.

·      Interpersonal Effectiveness: how to ask for what you want and say no while maintaining self-respect and relationships with others.

·      Emotion Regulation: how to change emotions that you want to change.

The term "dialectical" means to combine opposites. The primary dialectic within DBT is between the seemingly opposite strategies of acceptance and change. For example, DBT therapists accept clients as they are while also acknowledging that they need to change in order to reach their goals. For example, the four skills modules include two sets of acceptance-oriented skills (mindfulness and distress tolerance) and two sets of change-oriented skills (emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness).