When people refer to “talk therapy” as a treatment to help manage mental health, they often imagine a therapist and client simply sitting down together for a probing conversation.
Therapy may look like that at times, but modalities like dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) use specific techniques to help people alleviate symptoms and improve their mental health. DBT techniques are effective for treating a wide range of mental health conditions, including substance use disorder, depression, and suicidal behavior.
The skills learned through DBT are skills that are taught by a DBT therapist and that can be used for the rest of a person’s life to help manage their mental health long-term. A DBT therapist is any state-certified psychiatrist or therapist who has trained in dialectical behavior therapy. If you have questions about utilizing DBT techniques to improve your mental health, the professionals at Promises Behavioral Health are available to help.
Note for readers: This blog discusses suicide and self-injury.
What to Expect From DBT
DBT is based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which is considered the gold standard of behavioral therapies. CBT has been widely researched and proven effective. DBT focuses on key elements, including distress tolerance, mindfulness, and relationship skills.
DBT recognizes that life is complex. People can accept that something is true while still working to change it. For example, you can accept that you have anxiety and that it sometimes affects your quality of life while still taking steps to minimize symptoms.
There are four main components to DBT. They are pre-assessment, individual therapy sessions, DBT skills training groups, and ongoing coaching. Pre-assessment provides an opportunity to learn more about the therapy process and for a therapist to learn more about a client.
Individual sessions generally last around 50 minutes. During this time, a therapist helps the client learn new skills in order to improve specific symptoms. Skills training groups are different from traditional group therapy. DBT groups focus on learning, not on sharing personal experiences or receiving peer support.
DBT Skills
The main skills discussed during training groups are:
- Mindfulness – how to observe the self objectively without judgment
- Interpersonal effectiveness – improving communication and conflict resolution skills
- Emotional regulation – increasing positive emotions to keep moods stable
- Distress tolerance – managing impulses under stressful situations
- Exposure – consciously paying attention to behaviors, thoughts, and emotions
- Cognitive modification – changing unhelpful ways of thinking and behaving
- Chain analysis – a step-by-step method of understanding the thoughts, feelings, and actions that led to negative behavior
The goal of DBT and using DBT techniques in daily life is to help clients change unwanted patterns of behavior. This includes changing the way they think, feel, and interact with others.
These changes help people manage intense emotions and navigate stressful situations without relying on old habits, such as drinking alcohol, to alleviate feelings of depression.
What Does DBT Help With?
Originally, DBT was developed to help people who were highly suicidal and living with borderline personality disorder. Over time, mental health professionals recognized that DBT skills could be adapted to treat other mental health concerns. Today, this method of therapy is used for:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- ADHD
- Self-injury
- Substance use disorders
- Anger management
- Depressive disorders
- Borderline personality disorder
- Intimate partner violence
Many rehab centers include DBT in their addiction treatment programs. Substance use-focused DBT is a specific approach that encourages clients to abstain from drugs and alcohol while they work to change their behavior through DBT skills.
For example, if a client relapses, a therapist will encourage them to view the relapse as a problem to solve by applying their new skills and not as a personal failure that proves their inability to change.
Improve Your Mental Health with Dialectical Behavior Therapy at Promises Behavioral Health Today
Dialectical behavior therapy is a specific type of behavioral therapy that can help people accept themselves without judgment while working to make positive changes. The core of this therapy is DBT skills training, where clients learn and practice DBT techniques as a group. To learn more about DBT, contact Promises Behavioral Health at 844.875.5609 or reach out through our online contact form.