Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a form of therapy developed to address the needs of clients with strong tendencies toward self-invalidation, emotional vulnerability, shame and poorly controlled reactions to outside influences. Often, these clients have suffered from childhood traumas and continue to experience a long line of traumatic environmental events in adulthood.

The focus of this therapy is to teach the client how to begin to accept self while learning more adaptive methods to deal with difficulties and problem-solve. Without ignoring the past, the present is stressed through strategies that are aimed to create a less rigid view of self and the outside world by replacing it with the skills that allow for transactional communication.

Treatment is provided in individual sessions that are supported by group skills learning that focuses on (1) core mindfulness, (2) interpersonal effectiveness skills, (3) emotion modulation skills, and (4) distress tolerance skills.

The end goal is to assist the client to achieve change through the development of balanced, skills-oriented techniques of acceptance, problem-solving and understanding.