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Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a psychological method developed by Marsha M. Linehan, a psychology researcher at the University of Washington, to treat clients with borderline personality disorder (BPD). DBT combines standard cognitive-behavioral techniques for emotion regulation and reality testing with concepts of mindfulness, interpersoal effectiveness skills, distress tolerance, and acceptance largely derived from Buddhist meditative practice. DBT is the first therapy that has been experimentally demonstrated to be effective for treating BPD. Research indicates that DBT is also effective in treating patients who represent varied symptoms and behaviors associated with spectrum mood disorders, including self-injury.

All DBT involves two components:

1. An individual component:  in which the therapist and patient discuss issues that come up during the week, recorded on diary cards and follow a treatment target hierarchy. Self-injurious and suicidal behaviors take first priority, followed by therapy interfering behaviors. Then there are quality of life issues and finally working towards improving one's life generally. During the individual therapy, the therapist and patient work towards improving skill use.


2. A group component:  The participants learn to use specific skills that are broken down into four modules: core mindfulness skills, interpersonal effectiveness skills, emotion regulation skills, and distress tolerance skills.

 

Neither component is used by itself; the individual component is considered necessary to keep suicidal urges or uncontrolled emotional issues from disrupting group sessions, while the group sessions teach the skills unique to DBT, and also provide practice with regulating emotions and behavior in a social context. (excerpt from Wikipedia)

http://www.dbtselfhelp.com

Practitioner offering this specialty:  Maggie Hallet, Danielle Sharp