Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy. In DBT, the main goals are to teach people how to live in the moment, cope healthily with stress, regulate emotions, and improve relationships with others. During these sessions, the patient and therapist work to resolve the seeming contradiction between self-acceptance and change in order to bring about positive changes in the patient.

People undergoing DBT are taught how to effectively change their behavior using four main strategies:

• Mindfulness—focusing on the present (“living in the moment”).
• Distress Tolerance—learning to accept oneself and the current situation. More specifically, people learn how to tolerate or survive crises using these four techniques: distraction, self-soothing, improving the movement, and thinking of pros and cons.
• Interpersonal Effectiveness—being assertive in a relationship (e.g. expressing needs and saying “no”) but still keeping that relationship positive and healthy.
• Emotion Regulation—recognizing and coping with negative emotions and reducing one’s emotional vulnerability by increasing positive emotional experiences.

The Center for Hope and Healing offers DBT in an individual setting. If you believe you could benefit from DBT, please call our office to schedule an appointment. (763)633-51