The Clinical Affairs Team at MentalHealth.com is a dedicated group of medical professionals with diverse and extensive clinical experience. Identifying individual needs, exploring in-person or online options, and using trusted directories can lead to a therapist who is trained in DBT principles and can offer meaningful support. While costs and insurance coverage may vary, many providers offer flexible payment plans to help make care more accessible. Healing is possible, and DBT provides a clear and supportive path forward. Most DBT programs last between six and twelve months, with weekly sessions that typically run 40 to 60 minutes.

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However, working with a therapist can deepen your understanding, personalize the approach, and support long-term change. Many of the foundational principles of DBT — such as mindfulness, emotion regulation, and value-based living — are echoed in the field of positive psychology. DBT diary cards track emotions, behaviors, and skill use over time.

What is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy?

DBT was born out of Marsha Linehan’s efforts to find a treatment for women struggling with multiple mental health concerns and suicidal tendencies. When Linehan began looking at the current treatments used for anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders, she found that much of the focus was on changing your thinking and behaviors. CBT assumes that certain negative thoughts (cognitions) are distortions, and if you learn how to swap those distorted thoughts with more productive ones, you’ll be less depressed or anxious.

DBT Theory

• If you have been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, your treatment may last longer than that.
• Individuals can also learn to deal with challenging people in a healthy manner, acknowledge others’ thoughts and feelings, and learn to ask for what they need in a clear way.
• Whether you’re a therapist, coach, or someone using DBT independently, these resources can help reinforce skills outside of session and support long-term growth.
• Therapy-hampering behaviors can include anything from missing appointments to arriving late or not completing homework.

DBT was developed in large part to help people gain the skills to manage their emotions and improve their lives. Often, when people are overwhelmed with emotions, they may deal with the distressing feelings in ways that help them feel better in the moment. This can include substance abuse to numb the feelings or some type of immediate self-destructive action. While DBT and CBT have a lot in common, DBT focuses more on managing emotions and interpersonal relationships. Depending on where you live, you may have trouble finding a complete DBT program that includes individual sessions, group skills classes, and phone coaching. If so, you can look for a therapist who uses DBT techniques in their practice.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) helps clients who feel overwhelmed by intense emotions, experience difficulty in their relationships and are looking for greater stability in their lives. DBT helps reduce behaviors that lead to distress and disruption and increase helpful behaviors, resulting in a calmer, more fulfilled life. It evolved from Linehan’s work with individuals who were chronically suicidal and diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) wasn’t cutting it for these patients. They needed something more, something that could address the intensity of their emotions and the chaos in their lives. DBT uses emotional regulation and distress tolerance skills alongside trauma-focused interventions to help individuals process and manage traumatic experiences, reducing PTSD symptoms.

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• Initially developed for borderline personality disorder, DBT is now widely used to support those navigating anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), eating disorders, and related challenges.
• DBT was developed in the late 1980s by Dr. Marsha Linehan and colleagues when they discovered that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) alone did not work as well as expected in patients with BPD.
• After this, they review the information, look at your symptoms, and come up with a diagnosis.
• Utilizing DBT techniques to increase distress tolerance is particularly helpful in this case.
• Therapy in stage 1 involves crisis intervention and keeping people safe from suicide, self-harm, or addiction issues.

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What to Know About Dialectical Behavior Therapy

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If you’re feeling like mental health symptoms are negatively impacting your quality of life, health, or relationships, DBT might be a good choice for you. However, DBT puts a little more emphasis on managing emotions and interpersonal relationships. This is largely because it was originally developed as a treatment for BPD, which is often marked by dramatic swings in mood and behavior that can make having relationships with others difficult. In one study of DBT, the feelings of hopelessness or thinking of suicide decreased in people who received DBT therapy and training. The DBT treatment benefits also extended to more long-term symptoms of obsessive compulsion, anxiety, hostility, phobia, and psychosis. DBT appears to be an effective therapy for BPD and other issues that can be challenging to treat, including substance misuse and eating disorders.

• Each week, for individual therapy sessions, patients complete a diary “card” (often done via an app), a self-monitoring form that tracks individualized treatment targets relating to moods, behavior, and skills.
• During individual and group sessions, therapists encourage a nonjudgmental attitude and emphasize acceptance, compassion, and other aspects of mindfulness.
• In our first study, results favoring DBT were found in each DBT target area.
• These patterns can harm relationships and functioning across all settings.

Borderline personality disorder-focused dialectical behavior therapy helps individuals manage emotional instability and impulsivity. People with BPD are born with a biologically hard wired disposition toward emotional vulnerability which means they have a relatively low threshold for managing intense emotions. They also have difficulty returning to a baseline level of emotion.

• It requires commitment, practice, and a willingness to face challenges head-on.
• The use of DBT may be particularly effective for PTSD when conducted in a group setting.
• Try not to get discouraged by how long it may take to be able to better manage your emotions and have a better quality of life.
• DBT incorporates many of the techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
• It places greater emphasis on coping with uncomfortable feelings and emotions, learning how to accept them instead of grappling with them.

In addition, dialectics were incorporated to amphetamine addiction treatment allow therapists and participants in treatment to focus on the synthesis of polar opposites, such as acceptance and change. This helped them to avoid becoming trapped in patterns of extreme position-taking. It is recommended that people seeking treatment find a licensed mental health professional who has completed a specialized DBT training or certificate program. DBT is also effective in treating self harming behaviors which often arise as a response to anxiety. Utilizing DBT techniques to increase distress tolerance is particularly helpful in this case. Dialectical behavioral therapy skills group as an adjunct to family-based therapy in adolescents with restrictive eating disorders.

While DBT was originally developed for individuals with BPD, its effectiveness has led to its application in a wide range of mental health conditions. From depression and anxiety to eating disorders and substance abuse, DBT has proven to be a versatile and powerful tool. At Clear Behavioral Health, we’re committed to providing you with the highest standard of evidence-based care. DBT is an evidence-based treatment for many mental health conditions. In DBT, you learn to manage intense emotions, cope with distress, and cultivate healthy relationships.

It’s a comprehensive program that involves a significant commitment of time and effort to see the desired results. The excessive use of drugs or alcohol can impair the functioning of your brain and behavior. Addiction is complex and challenging to treat, but DBT may lessen the emotional discomfort of withdrawal and cravings, while also changing the behaviors that contribute to substance use. People with ADHD tend to have difficulty staying focused and often feel restless or act impulsively. DBT can teach you strategies to help focus on the present moment and think before making snap decisions or responses that you may later regret.