DBT - Dialectical Behavioural Therapy

What is DBT?

DBT treatment is designed to help people who experience their emotions in extreme ways that result in deep suffering. As they cannot handle their intense emotions, their relationships with others are usually volatile and very difficult. This therapeutic approach allows clients to increase their emotional and cognitive regulation and gives them tools to better manage their emotions in everyday life.

The word dialectic (in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) means to balance and compare two positions that appear very different or even contradictory. In Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, the balance is between change and acceptance. Clients need to change the behaviours in their life that are creating more suffering for themselves and others. Part of DBT therapy is to learn how to understand a sequence of events, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours as working together in bringing unwanted reactions. The second part is to learn skills to better cope with the emotions and better interact with others.

DBT therapy was originally developed to helps change risky patterns of behaviour such as Self-Harm, Suicidal Ideation, and Substance Abuse. However, it was later developed to help people who may experience difficulties in their lives due to their intense emotions. Specifically, DBT can be effective for borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression.

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy: Skill Building

DBT utilizes the following four skill-building categories to address problems. These four dimensions are included in the psychological treatment so clients can acquire tools to manage their emotional distress and interpersonal relationships in a healthier manner. DBT has been shown to improve the emotional wellbeing and relationships of the clients who engage in and commit to their treatment.

1. Emotional Regulation

Some people experience their emotions in a very intense way. Small, daily situations usually trigger extreme reactions that seem unjustifiable or disproportionate to observers. These reactions create difficult interactions with others who can’t understand where a certain reaction came from. So, they don’t know how to respond. Learning emotion regulation skills help people to recognize more clearly what they feel and observe each emotion without getting overwhelmed by it. The goal is to become aware and able to modulate their reactions without behaving in reactive, destructive and disproportionate ways.

DBT Skills For Understanding And Regulating Emotions

Learning how to distinguish emotions and identifying them
Distinguishing obstacles to managing emotions
Decreasing vulnerability to emotional reactions
Increasing positive emotional events
Increasing mindfulness of current emotions
Engaging in actions that are the opposite of the ones that feel natural
Focusing on senses to get through emotional distress
Applying distress tolerance techniques

2. Distress Tolerance

DBT emphasizes learning to bear pain skillfully in a new healthier way so that it does not lead to suffering. This can be accomplished through learning distraction techniques, relaxation, and coping skills. Distress Tolerance has to do with the ability to accept, in a non-evaluative and nonjudgmental way, both oneself and the current situation. Since this is a non-judgmental stance, this means that it is not one of approval or resignation. The goal is to become capable of calmly recognizing negative situations and their impact, rather than becoming overwhelmed or hiding from them. This allows individuals to make wise decisions about whether and how to act, rather than falling into the intense, desperate, and often destructive emotional reactions.

3. Interpersonal Effectiveness

Interpersonal response patterns taught in DBT skills training include developing assertiveness and interpersonal problem-solving techniques. They incorporate effective strategies for asking for what one needs, saying no, and coping with conflict in relationships. An individual may be able to describe effective behavioural sequences when discussing another person in a problematic situation. But she may be completely incapable of doing the same when analyzing her own position.

The interpersonal effectiveness module focuses on situations where the objective is to change something (e.g., requesting someone to do something). The module also teaches how to resist changes (e.g., saying no in an assertive and adequate manner). The skills taught are intended to maximize the chances that a person’s goals in a specific situation will be met. While doing so, steps are taken to not damage either the relationship or the person’s self-respect.

In this video you can see one of the strategies used for better communication with others:

4. DBT Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the practice of being fully aware of the present moment and is one of the core ideas behind all elements of DBT. It is considered a foundation for the other skills taught in DBT because it helps individuals accept and tolerate the powerful emotions they may feel when challenging their habits or exposing themselves to upsetting situations. Within DBT Mindfulness it is the capacity to pay attention, non-judgmentally, to the present moment. It is about living in the moment, experiencing one’s emotions and senses fully, yet with perspective.

Book An Appointment

At CBT Psychology For Personal Development, we specialize in DBT and CBT. If you are interested in DBT therapy and would like to see a DBT therapist in Vaughan, Thornhill, Markham, or the GTA, please call 905.597.4404 or fill out the form below and you will be contacted within 24 business hours. You may also request a teletherapy session over the phone or a video call.