Change Your Life With DBT

Throughout a given day, we all experience a variety of emotions. Conflict and painful feelings are inevitable. How you choose to express your feelings can seem uncontrollable at times. In the heat of the moment, your hurt can quickly transform into anger, and be expressed irrationally. Rather than dealing with the initial emotion we mask it behind a secondary emotion. 

You might find it uncomfortable to sit with your own thoughts or question why you are feeling a certain way. You might be second guessing yourself or acting tough to not seem weak. Secondary emotions are important but can cause problems because they inhibit and suppress the issue at hand. 

People who learn to accept and value their emotions are generally less distressed than those who are hiding and minimizing how they feel. Learning to accept your feelings and express them in a healthy manner requires effort and practice. DBT treatment through individual counseling and group meetings will help you develop the skills needed to regain control of your actions and overall life. 

What is DBT?

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive cognitive behavioral therapy that focuses on problem solving and acceptance-based strategies. DBT is designed to help individuals recognize their emotional triggers and implement healthy coping strategies to overcome negative feelings or patterns of thought. DBT helps individuals learn to balance and make sense of contradictory thoughts and emotions in order to overcome problematic behaviors. DBT aims towards understanding balance and the desire for change. 

Goals of DBT

DBT includes four main goals of treatment that are divided into stages.

1. Transitioning from feeling out of control to feeling in control
2. Transitioning from emotional unavailability to emotional engagement
3. Building a healthier life and solving problems when they arise
4. Transitioning from feeling incomplete to feeling connected and complete

How DBT works

A key component of DBT is skills training. This includes the teaching and application of 4 modules- mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness and distress tolerance. 

Mindfulness focuses on improving the ability to accept and be present in the moment, teaching skills on how to set aside worries about the past and future in order to completely address what is happening right now. As a result, people will feel more in control of their emotions versus their emotions controlling them. 

Distress tolerance is geared towards increasing the tolerance for negative emotion, rather than trying to ignore it. Individuals will learn to cope with situations that cause stress and anxiety by reframing their thoughts, and implementing self-soothing techniques.

Emotional regulation aids individuals in how to understand, adapt and ultimately change their emotions to improve their mindset and create positive actions. It is a strategy used to manage and regulate the emotions that are intense and problematic.

Interpersonal effectiveness teaches techniques that allow someone to communicate with others in a way that’s more easily understood. Individuals learn how to establish what they want and how to assess their needs while maintaining self-respect and healthy relationships with others.

Who can benefit?

The skills training and treatment model of DBT is applicable to a variety of individuals. Practicing mindfulness helps people with or without mental health conditions to improve well-being, attention to the present moment, and increasing positive emotional experiences while decreasing negative emotions and distress. People living with and even without a range of mental health conditions can highly benefit from DBT. 

DBT for depression

Dialectical behavioral therapy empowers people with depression to add positive emotional experiences to their lives in order to have better relationships and experience more joy.

DBT for anxiety

For individuals dealing with anxiety, DBT provides the skills to live in the present moment, tolerate intense feelings and modify behaviors in order to create new positive experiences.

DBT for personality disorders 

People with borderline personality disorder as well as other personality disorders can benefit from learning skills for tolerating distress and controlling intense emotions. If not managed these stressors usually increase vulnerability to depression, anxiety, and contribute to various unhealthy behaviors as a result. 

DBT for eating disorders

People with eating disorders benefit from skills that regulate intense emotions. Individuals are taught to pick up on trigger emotions that lead to problematic behaviors. The skills training component of DBT offers new skills to regulate difficult feelings.

DBT Treatment in Scottsdale, AZ

Pathways Counseling Services based in Scottsdale, Arizona, provides DBT treatment through individual counseling and group sessions to help individuals get the tools they need to deal with their distress and destructive behavior in a healthy way. If you feel DBT treatment is the positive step forward you’ve been looking for, we encourage you to call us at (480)235-1682 or schedule an appointment online. We look forward to assisting you and your loved ones on your individual paths.