DBT is another evidence-based psychotherapy that is commonly used to help address distress tolerance difficulties, self-harm behaviours and Borderline Personality characteristics.
DBT is sometimes used to help bolster coping skills and affect regulation difficulties amongst individuals with trauma or PTSD in order to help stabilize their symptoms and/or better prepare them for more trauma-focused therapy.
DBT is considered a cognitive behavioural therapy (similar to CBT) and was developed in the 1980s by a psychologist named Marsha Linehan. DBT proposes that some people are more prone to react in more intense ways when exposed to stress or conflict. One reason may be that some people’s arousal are triggered and/or accelerate more quickly than others and then take longer to return to baseline arousal levels.
A primary focus of DBT interventions is to help people to better regulate their emotional arousal levels and/or the intensity of their emotional distress through concrete exercises and practices to build skills. This is achieved through 4 key components:
1) Mindfulness,
2) Interpersonal Effectiveness,
3) Distress Tolerance,
4) Emotion Regulation.
Mindfulness:
Mindfulness involves helping people train their ability to stay focused on the present moment. The core mindfulness skills for staying present taught through DBT include Observe, Describe and Participate. Other skills to advance mindfulness practice include Non-judgmentally, One-mindfully and Effectively.
Interpersonal Effectiveness:
DBT often focuses on amelorating interpersonal disruption by increasing social skills such as assertiveness skills. Skill building is focused on helping individuals to identify their own needs in relationships, say no when desired, and respond more calmly to interpersonal conflict.
Distress tolerance:
An important component of easing suffering involves working towards increased tolerance of things that cannot be controlled, including situations, other’s behaviour and our own feelings. Acceptance-based skills are a key component of DBT distress tolerance skills. Self-soothing skills using the five senses is also commonly used to help increase people’s ability to self-regulate. These skills are often disrupted in individuals who suffered developmental trauma while those skills were forming.
Emotion Regulation:
DBT if often suggested for people who are frequently irritable, angry, frustrated, or intensely anxious or depressed. To assist with these difficulties, DBT focuses on approaches such as teaching people to notice and label their own feelings, shift out of ’emotion-mind’, increase experiences of positive emotions and actively and routinely apply distress tolerance skills such as self-soothing and radical acceptance.
Most of our therapist utilize components of DBT. If you are looking for a more structured DBT program (which includes individual sessions, group therapy and crisis support) then we would recommend St. Joseph’s bridge to recovery program as we do not provide between-session crisis support. For DBT informed therapy reach out to us.
[/vc_column_text]
