DBT – What is it? Why is it soo helpful?

DBT Dialectical Behaviour Therapy – Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Skills. 

You may have heard of DBT (Dialectical behavior therapy) or seen it on various psychology or therapist related sites. Here is a quick breakdown of what it is and the ways it can help. DBT is an effective, science-backed therapy that helps people — many of whom experience life challenges and wish to build a life they find worthwhile. 

DBT assumes that people are doing the best they can at any given time. However, it also acknowledges that people also need to learn new behaviours in relevant personal and social situations to increase life satisfaction and happiness. In DBT, you identify what this kind of life looks like for you and learn the skills to make it happen. 

DBT focuses on four key areas: 

Mindfulness  

– Focus on being present in the moment in a nonjudgmental way. 

– Not relying on only the logical brain or the emotional brain but finding the space where they overlap – coined the “wise mind.” 

Distress Tolerance  

– Bearing pain skillfully in the short and long term, without making things worse than they need to be. 

Emotion Regulation 

– Provide regulation skills that help to label and identify emotions, change unwanted emotions, and decrease vulnerability to problematic emotions. 

Interpersonal skills 

– Designed to create awareness of factors that increase effective communication and how to achieve your objectives, attend to relationships and reserve self-respect. 

While DBT can help regardless of whether you have a mental health diagnosis, it’s often used to support people who experience: 

· borderline personality disorder (BPD) · eating disorders · substance use disorders · suicidal ideation and self-harm Contact Hali (hali@greatheightscalmminds.com) to learn more about how DBT can be useful in your therapeutic process.