Who Does DBT Help?

DBT can be helpful for people who experience strong emotions and display symptoms of:

• Substance use
• Disassociation
• Suicidal thoughts
• Self-harm
• Rapid mood swings
• Extreme stubbornness
• Bingeing and purging

People who undergo dialectical behavior therapies must be willing to participate in group therapy, individual therapy, and phone coaching. In group therapy, people learn behavioral skills in the company of other individuals. In individual therapy, the therapist guides the person in applying the skills to their personal challenges. Between sessions, patients can call their therapist for guidance on specific situations they are dealing with.

What Are the Six Main Points of Dialectical Behavior Therapy?

As you may already be able to tell, there are many elements involved in DBT. We’ll discuss the four stages in a bit but you also need to be aware that there are six main points to this type of therapy.

The first, which we have already mentioned. is acceptance and change. You will be taught strategies to help you accept your circumstances, feelings, and self. You will also learn how to adopt positive behaviors and change the way you interact with other people.

The other points are:

• Behavioral: You’ll learn to examine your harmful behavior patterns and replace them with more effective behaviors.
• Cognitive: You’ll focus on changing ineffective or unhelpful thoughts and beliefs.
• Collaboration: You’ll learn how to communicate more effectively and work with your clinicians, skills that will serve you well later in your recovery.
• Skill sets: You’ll gain a variety of new skills that you can use to strengthen your capabilities.
• Support: You’ll be applauded when you recognize your own strengths and positive abilities, grow them further, and use them in a variety of situations.

Stages Involved in DBT

Therapists follow a multistage approach that often termed the DBT House of Therapy:

• In stage 1, therapists treat extreme self-destructive behaviors such as self-harm and suicidal attempts.

• In stage 2, the focus is on inculcating skills that will improve the patient’s quality of life such as distress tolerance and emotional regulation.

• In stage 3, the patient builds their self-esteem and works on improving relationships. The final stage is designed to promote joy and deepen connections in relationships.

Skills Taught in DBT

So far, we have made mention of skills several times. Now let us look together at some of the skills you will likely be taught if you get dialectical therapy.

Core Mindfulness

Mindfulness is all about living in the moment and focusing on the present. Developing mindfulness skills is one of the biggest benefits of DBT. You’ll learn to pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, and impulses as well as what is happening around you without offering judgment.

These skills help you to slow down and draw on healthy coping mechanisms if you’re dealing with emotional pain. Mindfulness can also help you to stay calm and not automatically respond with negative thoughts and impulsive actions

A simple way to observe mindfulness is to pay attention to your breathing and how your belly rises and falls as you inhale and exhale.

Distress Tolerance

Building your distress tolerance skills will help you to accept yourself and your situation as it currently stands. It helps you to prepare for intense emotions and gives you tools to cope with them. Techniques for skillfully managing a crisis include:

• Distraction
• Improving the moment
• Self-soothing
• Considering the pros and cons of not tolerating the distress

You can practice your distress tolerance skills by getting up and walking around, changing your location, or running up and down the stairs. This is a form of distraction where you try to get your emotions to follow your body.

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Building your interpersonal effectiveness allows you to be more assertive in your relationships while keeping those relationships healthy. DBT will teach you how to listen and communicate better and deal with difficult people.

One acronym you can use to improve your communication is GIVE. This encourages you to be gentle, show interest, validate the other party’s thoughts and feelings, and have an easy attitude.

Emotion Regulation

Here, you learn how to identify your emotions, name them, and change them. When you can recognize and manage negative emotions like anger, you’ll be less emotionally vulnerable, and you’ll have more positive emotional experiences. A helpful exercise here may be to identify the way you are feeling currently and then act in the opposite way.

Things to Consider If You’re Interested in DBT

Dialectical therapy isn’t for everyone. It requires a lot of time since you need to do homework outside of the individual, group, and phone sessions. Some people may not be able to keep up.

Some individuals also find it difficult to practice some of the skills especially when they need to explore traumatic experiences.

Talk to the Team at Circle of Hope to Learn More

To find out if DBT techniques can help you overcome your drug or alcohol addiction, you need to talk to a trained professional. At Circle of Hope, we will thoroughly assess your symptoms, medical and psychological history, and treatment goals to help us decide on which methodology is best. Call us today to learn more about incorporating DBT in recovery and other options for treatment.