Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
has two main components
Individual Therapy
Each week, DBT clients meet with an individual therapist for approximately an hour. During this time, they teach and reinforce mindfulness and focus on reinforcing the skills learned in the group therapy setting. Therapists provide feedback and support in reviewing how DBT skills were used since the last appointment, discuss personal issues best explored individually, and work on positive coping strategies that facilitate change.
Group Therapy
While in DBT, clients attend a group therapy session once per week for approximately two hours. During group therapy, clients learn the principles of DBT and practice them in a group setting. They receive support and feedback from group members. This level of learning and accountability creates opportunities to learn new behavior patterns that help clients improve interpersonal relationships and cope more positively when stressful situations arise.
Who is a candidate for DBT Therapy?
Intense Emotions
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If you find that emotions are very intense and change quickly you may be a candidate for DBT. Experiencing strong negative emotions that are causing problems in other areas of your life or make it difficult to do everyday activities is one reason someone may seek DBT therapy.
Engage in Self-harm
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If you engage in cutting, self-harm, overuse substances or medications, and can’t seem to get these urges under control, seek help. DBT has been found very effective with individuals struggling with self-harm.
Struggle to Cope
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Life and everyday experiencing seem overwhelming and intolerable. Everyday experiences cause extreme stress and negative emotions. DBT seeks to stabilize the emotional extremes and teach skills that empower clients and help them cope more positively.
Sabotage Relationships
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One day your relationship is perfect and the next it is over. Fights and arguments are commonplace. You have developed a love/hate relationship with those you care about. You want more positive relationships, but can’t seem to figure out how to change the dynamic. DBT teaches skills to manage and improve your interpersonal relationships.
Complex Needs
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Have you been told you have a dual-diagnosis or personality disorder? Do you have several mental health diagnoses or been told you have a complex case? DBT may be right for you.
Trust Problems
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Either you don’t trust others or they don’t trust you. Perhaps you feel everything is a broken promise? Maybe you lack trust in yourself and your ability to effectively cope with life. DBT helps clients repair trust both with themselves and others.
What is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy?
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a specific type of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy developed in the by psychologist Marsha M. Linehan to help better treat borderline personality disorder. Since its development, it has also been used for the treatment of a variety of mental health disorders.
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) treatment is a type of psychotherapy — or talk therapy — that utilizes a cognitive-behavioral approach. DBT emphasizes the psychosocial aspects of treatment (Grohol, 2019) .
The theory behind the DBT approach is that some individuals are prone to react in a more intense manner toward certain emotional situations across a range of settings particularly romantic, family and friend relationships. DBT theory suggests that some individual’s arousal levels can increase far more quickly than the average, they attain a higher level of emotional stimulation, and take a significant amount of time to return to baseline arousal levels.
Individuals who are sometimes diagnosed with borderline personality disorder experience extreme swings in their emotions, see the world in black-and-white shades, and seem to always be jumping from one crisis to another. Because few people understand such reactions or their function they don’t have any methods for coping with these sudden, intense surges of emotion. DBT is a treatment method for teaching skills that will help the individual cope.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is…
- Support-oriented: This helps clients identify their strengths and build on skills that help them lead a more fulfilling life.
- Cognitive-based: DBT focuses on identifying thoughts and emotions that make life harder and re-frame them in a way that is more tolerable. By addressing thought patterns, clients can learn how to process thoughts and emotions differently and in more positive ways.
- Collaborative: Working with clients to learn the DBT skills and put them to practice. It is important that good rapport and trust exists between client and therapist. Clients are asked to complete homework outside sessions and review and analyze what happened between sessions and how they responded with their therapist.
Generally, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) may be seen as having two main components:
1. Individual weekly psychotherapy sessions that emphasize problem-solving behavior for the past week’s issues and troubles that arose in the person’s life. Self-injurious and suicidal behaviors take first priority, followed by behaviors that may interfere with the therapy process. Quality of life issues and working toward improving life in general may also be discussed. Individual sessions in DBT also focus on decreasing and dealing with post-traumatic stress responses (from previous trauma in the person’s life) and helping enhance their own self-respect and self-image.
Both between and during sessions, the therapist actively teaches and reinforces adaptive behaviors, especially as they occur within the therapeutic relationship[…]. The emphasis is on teaching patients how to manage emotional trauma rather than reducing or taking them out of crises […]. Telephone contact with the individual therapist between sessions is part of DBT procedures. (Linehan, 2014)
During individual therapy sessions, the therapist and client work toward learning and improving many basic social skills.
2. Weekly group therapy sessions, generally 2 1/2 hours a session which is led by a trained DBT therapist. In these weekly group therapy sessions, people learn skills from one of four different modules: interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance/reality acceptance skills, emotion regulation, and mindfulness skills are taught.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the time commitment?
Clients in DBT Therapy spend one hour in individual DBT therapy and two and a half hours in DBT group therapy each week.
How do I know DBT is right for me?
Call us and we will talk through your situation. If DBT is right for you, we will schedule the first appointment. If it’s not, we have other resources and will give you a recommendation on what type of therapy might be a good fit for you.
Do you accept insurance?
At this time, SKill Spark Therapy Center accepts Minnesota Medical Assistance or MN Care, BCBS, Medica, UHC, and Ucare for our DBT clients. If you have other insurance that covers DBT, we are happy to work with you to provide a statement you can use to file a claim with your insurance company. In this case, you are responsible to pay for the cost of treatment when it is rendered. Reimbursement from your insurance is not guaranteed as insurance plans have a variety of different benefits.
Do you provide an Adapted DBT Program?
Yes, we offer both standard and adapted DBT. An adapted program is a great fit for individuals with intellectual disabilities or other cognitive or processing disorders.
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