What is Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT for short) is a form of psychotherapy that was originally designed by Marsha Linehan for people with Borderline Personality Disorder, who cope with distressing emotions and situations in self-destructive ways. However, in recent years DBT has been used in a wide variety of contexts as the skills have a great ability to work with all sorts of problems or issues.
DBT helps individuals learn more helpful coping skills to managing their distressing emotions and improve their quality of life and relationships with others.
Dialectics is based on the premise that two opposite ideas can be true at the same time. They can co-exist. DBT offers two opposing ideas but focuses on finding the middle ground, while still getting the individuals needs met.
Within the skills group the facilitators offer two opposite ideas and leave it to the participants to find their own middle ground. The DBT skills group has four distinct modules:
• Mindfulness
• Distress Tolerance
• Emotion Regulation
• Interpersonal Skills
Each of these modules has a specific focus on developing techniques and strategies to help manage distressing emotions. Shore Therapy has developed their DBT Skills program to focus on anger management issues. Each of these skills are essential to developing a strong and successful way to manage anger.
If you are interested in joining a DBT group or learning more, please click here to contact us.