Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a behavioral oriented therapy developed by Marsha M. Linehan, a psychology researcher at the University of Washington that involves skills training.
This comprehensive model includes combines standard cognitive-behavioral techniques for emotion regulation and reality-testing with concepts skills from each of the four modules: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness.
The focus of the Dialectical Behavior Therapy group is on:
- increasing interpersonal effectiveness
- decreasing crisis inpatient admissions,
- teaching skills for managing distress and impulsiveness.
The Four Modules
- Mindfulness – the capacity to pay attention, nonjudgmentally, to the present moment,
- Distress Tolerance – the ability to accept, in a non-evaluative and nonjudgmental fashion, both oneself and the current situation,
- Interpersonal Effectiveness – the effective strategies for asking for what one needs, saying no, and coping with interpersonal conflict,
- Emotional Regulation – the effective strategies for learning to regulate ones emotions:
- Identifying and labeling emotions
- Identifying obstacles to changing emotions
- Reducing vulnerability to emotion mind
- Increasing positive emotional events
- Increasing mindfulness to current emotions
- Taking opposite action
- Applying distress tolerance techniques
