What is DBT?

DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) is an evidence based modality shown to be effective for people in crisis, struggling with intense emotionality, conflictual relationships, and problematic behaviors. 

It can help in your ability to change negative behavioral patterns, handle a crisis, control emotions, improve relationships, and to be more present in your daily life.

DBT is based on and teaches the following five skills:

Mindfulness: These skills help you pay attention, improve focus, increase happiness, reduce suffering, and to learn and cultivate empathy. Mindful living improves your relationships, and helps you to be less judgmental of yourself and others.

Distress Tolerance Skills: Life these days can be very stressful. Many people do not know how to manage their stress. Because of this, it can manifest as an emotional outburst, or be suppressed with maladaptive self-soothing mechanisms like overeating or drinking, smoking, or physical tension. These things often leads to more – not less – stress. Distress tolerance skills teach you how to reduce stress so you can get through difficult moments without worsening a situation.

Emotion Regulation: These skills teach you how to understand and experience emotions more comfortably. This will give you more control over your emotions vs feeling like your emotions have control over you. Learning to name your emotions and understanding how they work and motivate you is an effective way to learn this skill.

Interpersonal Effectiveness: These skills help you learn how to communicate more effectively with others so you can get your needs met without damaging your relationships, or losing your self respect due to silencing yourself.

Walking the Middle Path: These skills help us balance our own perspective with those of others and find the balance between them. You will learn how to validate yourself without the need to take sides or dismiss your own values or beliefs. The goal is to understand, develop and resolve problems in a way that takes everyone’s needs into account.