Dialectical Behavior Therapy Program

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy or DBT works by teaching clients how to experience emotions without reacting to them impulsively. It is focused on improving acceptance and balanced emotional responses. It does this, in part by teaching emotional regulation. DBT is unique in that it employs the idea of bringing together opposite forces together in the mind to foster understanding. Dialectical means trying to understand how two things that seem opposite one another could be true. For example, it focuses on both acceptance and change. Both can be positives, yet they are seemingly opposite one another. DBT has been shown to be particularly effective in clients with more difficult to treat conditions like borderline personality disorder (BPD).  

The DBT approach helps by:

• Teaching clients how to understand and accept difficult feelings
• Empowering clients to face difficult emotions and overcome negative responses.
• Help clients learn skills that enable them to make positive changes in their lives.

The DBT approach to changing your thoughts and behavior helps you become better at handling stress and emotionally challenging circumstances. This form of treatment naturally fosters understanding and empathy because it forces us to look at both sides of any given situation. It can make people not only better at managing their emotions but also more objective in the way they observe situations and how they react to them. It’s easy to understand how learning to better manage emotions and improving our objectivity would be helpful in both a treatment and recovery setting.

In a dialectical behavior therapy program, you may learn:

• New ways to accept circumstances and accept responsibility for mistakes.
• How to recognize your own skills and strengths and leverage them.
• To improve relationships with others utilizing role-playing behavior.
• To uncover destructive patterns or thoughts and replace these with healthier ones.