CORE MINDFULNESS helps to be in control of your mind rather than letting your mind be in control of you. This section focuses on:
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a specific type of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy developed in the late 1980’s by Psychologist Marsha M. Linehan to help better treat borderline personality disorder. Since its development, it has also been used for the treatment of other kinds of mental health disorders.
DBT emphasizes the psychosocial aspects of treatment. The theory behind the approach is that some people are prone to react in a more intense and out-of-the-ordinary manner toward certain emotional situations, primarily those focused in romantic, family and friend relationships. DBT theory suggests that some people’s arousal levels in such situations can increase far more quickly than the average person’s, attain a higher level of emotional stimulation, and take a significant amount of time to return to baseline arousal levels.
People who are diagnosed with borderline personality disorder sometimes experience extreme swings in their emotions, see the world in black-and-white shades, and seem to always be jumping from one crisis to another. Because few people understand such reactions - most of all their own family and a childhood that emphasized invalidation - they don’t have any methods for coping with these sudden, intense surges of emotion. DBT is a method for teaching skills that will help in this task.
Weekly group therapy sessions generally last 90 minutes and are led by a trained DBT therapist. They focus on learning skills from one of five different modules:
CORE MINDFULNESS helps to be in control of your mind rather than letting your mind be in control of you. This section focuses on:
DISTRESS TOLERANCE teaches pain is a part of life and can’t always be avoided; if you can’t cope with painful feelings, it may lead to impulsive behaviors and
acting impulsively can lead to hurting yourself or someone else. Participants will learn:
WALKING THE MIDDLE PATH assists in thinking and acting dialectically. In other words, walking the middle path teaches that there is more than one way to
see a situation, and more than one way to solve a problem. All people have unique qualities and different points of view and two things that are opposites can
be true, while honoring the truth of both sides of a conflict. Participants will learn:
EMOTIONAL REGULATION assists in taking control of emotions rather than allowing emotions to take control of you. Participants will learn:
INTERPERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS assists in keeping and maintaining healthy relationships, asserting oneself, and maintaining self-respect. Participants will
learn:
