What is DBT?
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a cognitive-behavioural
treatment developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan at the University of
Washington.
Most commonly used for persons with Borderline Personality
Disorder (BPD), DBT is most helpful for people who struggle with
difficulties in managing their emotions.
DBT normally involves learning important new
skills in the areas of:
- managing your attention (mindfulness skills),
- managing and coping with your emotions (emotion regulation skills),
- dealing effectively with interpersonal situations (interpersonal
effectiveness skills), and
- tolerating emotional distress (distress
tolerance skills).
In addition, DBT therapists meet weekly to discuss
cases, and to provide the supervision, training, and support required to
be effective therapists.
Several research studies over the past 15 years have demonstrated that
DBT is effective in helping people learn to manage their emotions
effectively, reduce anger, stop suicidal behaviour and self-injury, and
overcome problems with drug use and eating disorders.
DBT also is better
than standard treatments for BPD at keeping people out of the emergency
room and the hospital. In fact, DBT is the only well-established
psychological treatment for problems related to BPD. DBT has also shown
good effects in the treatment of adolescent suicidality, substance
abuse,binge eating disorder, domestic violence, and depression among
older adults.
DBT is especially effective for people with the following problems:
- Borderline Personality Disorder
- Suicidal thinking or behaviour (e.g., suicide attempts)
- Self-injury and other self-destructive behaviours
- Difficulties with anger and anger management
- Problems with other emotions (such as intense sadness or recurrent fear)
- Impulsive behaviours that can be dangerous (such as reckless driving, recurrent unsafe sex, etc.)
- Difficulty building and maintaining healthy relationships
- Chronic feelings of emptiness
- Depression among older adults
- Problems with alcohol & drug use
- Eating disordered behaviour, such as bingeing and purging
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