Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?

A thorough cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), was first created to treat people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and persistent suicidal thoughts. It works well for a range of psychological problems. Primarily drawn from Buddhist meditation practices, DBT integrates distress tolerance, acceptance, and mindful awareness with everyday cognitive-behavioral strategies for emotion control and reality testing.

The unique dialectical approach of DBT entails accepting clients for who they are while understanding that change is necessary to achieve their objectives. This balance between acceptance and change demonstrates the therapy’s fundamental tenet: seemingly incompatible forces can coexist and be combined for improved results.

DBT therapy is comprised of four primary parts:

1. Individual Therapy: Weekly one-on-one sessions with a DBT therapist, emphasizing the use of DBT techniques to address particular problems.
2. Group Skills Training: DBT skills in emotion regulation, mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, and distress tolerance are taught in weekly group sessions.
3. Phone coaching: In between sessions, get on-call assistance for advice on using DBT techniques under challenging circumstances.
4. Therapist Consultation Team: Therapists meet regularly to discuss cases and ensure that DBT principles are being followed.

The four behavioral skill sets that DBT prioritizes developing are emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness. It offers a potent foundation for healing and personal development by promoting equilibrium between the need to change and acceptance of reality.

Although Insights Psychology does not offer a typical DBT program, our therapists use DBT principles in individual treatment sessions.