What is DBT?
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
(DBT) is a cognitive-behavioural treatment developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan at
the University of Washington. Most commonly used for persons with Borderline
Personality Disorder (BPD), DBT is most helpful for people who struggle with
difficulties in managing their emotions. DBT normally involves a weekly individual
therapy session (usually 50 minutes), a weekly group therapy session (usually
1.5-2 hours) that involves learning important new skills in the areas of managing
your attention (mindfulness skills), managing and coping with your emotions
(emotion regulation skills), dealing effectively with interpersonal situations
(interpersonal effectiveness skills), and tolerating emotional distress (distress
tolerance skills). In addition, DBT therapists meet weekly to discuss cases,
and to provide the supervision, training, and support required to be effective
therapists.
Several research studies over the past 15 years have demonstrated that DBT is
effective in helping people learn to manage their emotions effectively, reduce
anger, stop suicidal behaviour and self-injury, and overcome problems with drug
use and eating disorders. DBT also is better than standard treatments for BPD
at keeping people out of the emergency room and the hospital. In fact, DBT is
the only well-established psychological treatment for problems related to BPD. DBT
has also shown good effects in the treatment of adolescent suicidality, substance abuse,
binge eating disorder, domestic violence, and depression among older adults.