Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, is a type of therapy developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan that focuses on your current problems and how those problems are learned and maintained. The goal of DBT is to help you replace ineffective ways of coping with more effective ways of coping. As your behaviors change, your thoughts and emotions will too. DBT consists of a broad range of psychological interventions and is both flexible and principle-driven. This means that instead of using a standard treatment protocol, your therapist will strive to modify and personalize your treatment to your present concerns and life worth living goals, based on your unique history and current context.

DBT has shown to be effective in treating emotion dysregulation, self-harm and suicidality, and borderline personality disorder. Additionally, DBT is effective in treating treatment-resistant depression (depression that doesn’t respond to traditional CBT or medication), some eating disorders, and trauma-related disorders, among other mental health concerns. Most research has been done on Comprehensive DBT, which consists of four components: Individual Therapy, Skills Group, Phone Coaching, and Therapist Consultation team. For some problems, modifications of Comprehensive DBT are appropriate (e.g., Individual Therapy or Skills Group only). DBT uses several types of interventions, including behavioral, acceptance and validation, and mindfulness based techniques.

Behavioral interventions in DBT focus on replacing ineffective ways of coping with more effective coping skills. DBT focuses on teaching coping skills for “distress tolerance”, “emotion regulation”, and “interpersonal effectiveness”, using tools ranging from physiological and relaxation strategies, in which you learn to regulate your body’s responses in order to regulate your emotions; to learning how to cope ahead for upcoming stressors; to communication skills training to help with interpersonal concerns.

Acceptance and validation interventions in DBT focus on self-compassion and communication to yourself that you are doing the best you can and that your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors make sense given your history or current circumstances. DBT also stresses “dialectics,” which means that two things that seem like opposites can both be true at the same time. One of the core dialectics in DBT is acceptance and change. For example, you might need to learn to accept your emotional responses and also need to learn strategies to change and cope with your emotions.

Mindfulness based interventions in DBT focus on the ways you avoid or suppress unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and experiences, for instance, by compartmentalizing, distracting, or pushing back against reality as it currently is. These interventions aim to help improve both your awareness of your own internal experiences, as well as a tolerance for and openness to your experiences without judgment or avoidance, regardless of how unpleasant those experiences may be.