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DBT Skills Review For Teens

WHAT IS DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOR THERAPY?

Dialectal behavior therapy (DBT) is a modified form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) designed to help with emotional instability, which clinicians call "dysregulation"—the inability to manage intense emotions, depression, and anxiety. Dysregulation leads to impulsive, self-destructive, or self-harming behaviors. The goal of DBT is to teach individuals techniques to help them understand their emotions without judgment—the mindfulness component—and also to give them skills and techniques to manage those emotions and change behaviors in ways that will make their lives better. DBT was invented by Dr. Marsha Linehan, a psychologist, who used her own insights from living successfully with BPD to develop this novel therapy.

WHAT SKILLS ARE TAUGHT IN DBT?

DBT includes four sets of behavioral skills.

Mindfulness
- Mindfulness is the capacity to pay attention, non-judgmentally, to the present moment.
- It is the foundation for the other skills taught in DBT.
- Individuals will learn to accept and tolerate the powerful emotions they feel.
Interpersonal Effectiveness
- Includes effective strategies for asking for what one needs, saying no, and coping with interpersonal conflict.
- Similar to skills taught in assertiveness and interpersonal problem-solving classes.
Emotion Regulation: DBT recognizes that people with mood issues tend to be emotionally intense; anger, frustration, depression, and anxiety are common.
- The Emotion Regulation module skills include:
  - Increasing mindfulness to current emotions
  - Identifying and labeling emotions
  - Identifying obstacles to changing emotions
  - Reducing vulnerability
  - Increasing positive emotional events
  - Taking opposite action
  - Applying distress tolerance techniques
Distress Tolerance: Many current approaches to mental health treatment focus on the aftermath of distressing events and circumstances. DBT supports accepting, finding meaning for, and tolerating distress in the moment.
- DBT emphasizes learning to bear pain skillfully.
- Distress Tolerance skills constitute a natural development from mindfulness skills.
- They have to do with the ability to accept, in a non-evaluative and non-judgmental fashion, both oneself and the current situation. This does not mean that it is one of approval or resignation.
- The goal is to become capable of calmly recognizing negative situations and their impact, rather than becoming overwhelmed or hiding from them. This allows the individual to make wise decisions about whether and how to take action, rather than falling into destructive behaviors.

Each of the four modules concentrates on a different strategy to support self-awareness and emotional skills. Through the modules, clients can develop techniques to increase awareness of their personal triggers and responses, and the understanding to accept and manage them.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CBT AND DBT?

DBT differs from traditional CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) in its emphasis on validation—a powerful tool whereby the therapist and the patient work on “accepting” uncomfortable thoughts, feelings and behaviors rather than struggling with them. Once an identified thought, emotion or behavior has been validated, the process of change no longer appears impossible, and the goals of gradual transformation become reality. The term dialectics refers to the therapist’s goal of establishing a balance between acceptance and change and effectively integrating these two fundamental principles of successful therapy. DBT also focuses on the development of coping skills—specific behavioral techniques used to combat the disabling symptoms of mental illness.

As part of the skills-based element of DBT, emphasis is often placed on the development of mindfulness practice and other relaxation techniques. Mindfulness has its roots in Eastern meditation practices (e.g., yoga) and teaches individuals to become increasingly conscious of their thoughts and feelings through observation of bodily sensations. Through this practice, an individual develops the ability to accept distressing thoughts without self- criticism and to tolerate self-destructive urges (e.g., the desire to cut oneself) without acting upon them. Deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation are examples of specific mindfulness techniques. People in DBT will frequently be asked to use their “wise mind” to help them make better choices.

Like CBT, DBT can involve the use of “homework” in between sessions. A common exercise is the use of diary cards or journaling for individuals to track their progress by noting the presence of symptoms as well as successes.

What is DBT? An Interview With DBT Founder Dr. Marsha Linehan

INTRODUCTION TO DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOR THERAPY

This is a brief introduction to dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills training from the perspective of a peer in phase 3 of DBT. The presentation may be useful to anyone who is interested learning about DBT skills training.

INTRODUCTION TO PACED BREATHING

This is an introduction to mindfulness tasks according to dialectical behavior therapy. The video covers breath training and provides a guided exercise in paced breathing.

The Biosocial Model, Wise Mind & TIP Skills

This is an introductory video for people who are just starting out with dialectical behavior therapy skills training. Concepts covered include the biosocial model for emotion dysregulation, wise mind, dialectical thinking and TIP crisis survival skills. If you are unfamiliar with the DBT Peer Connections training videos, this is a good starting point for you.

DBT 6 LEVELS OF VALIDATION

In this skills training video, you will learn the what the 6 levels of Validation are according to dialectical behavior therapy. You will learn how to define, identify, and apply the various levels of validation to yourself and others.

SETTING SMART GOALS & VITALS TO SUCCESS SKILLS

This dialectical behavior therapy skills training video defines SMART Goals, which are Specific, Meaningful, Achievable, Recordable, and timeline-based. VITALS to success skills help make the process of working toward SMART goals more effective.

Core Mindfulness Skills

In the first video viewers are oriented to DBT. It is an introduction to DBT as a whole. In this first official episode.The viewer learns about mindfulness as it relates to skills and dialectical behavior therapy. These are the first skills taught in DBT skills trainings groups and are essential to building DBT skills mastery.

Reality Acceptance Skills

DIalectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training teaches four sets of skills for life enhancement. This is the third video installment in a series in progress that aims to teach DBT’s valuable skills from a peer perspective and to make such learning easily accessible and without the burden of excessive costs. In this episode, the skills that are taught relate to Reality acceptance and fit within the core mindfulness module. Specifically, the skills you learn in this video are Loving Kindness, Radical Acceptance, Willingness, Turn the Mind, and Half-smile

Distress Tolerance STOP Skills

In this dialectical behavior therapy skills training video, viewers learn the distress tolerance STOP skills, which include: STOP, Take a Step Back, Observe the Situation, and Proceed Effectively.

Distress Tolerance ACCEPTS and IMPROVE Skills

This is the 4th video in what will be a complete series teaching DBT skills from a peer perspective. This video covers distress tolerance skills which are remembered by the acronyms ACCEPTS and IMPROVE. The skills covered includes Activities, Contributing, Comparisons, Emotion opposites, Thoughts, Self-soothe with the senses, Imagery, Meaning, Prayer (as it relates to your personal spiritual beliefs), Relaxation, One thing at a time, Vacation, and Encouragement.

Identifying, Labeling, and Function of Emotions

This video is an introduction to dialectical behavior therapy emotion regulation skills. The video begins with an overview of all the emotion regulation skills then covers goals of emotion regulation skills training, identifying and labeling emotions, function of emotions, and mindful to emotions.

Check the Facts of Emotional Responses

This is part 2 of the emotion regulation skills training videos I am creating. The first emotion regulation video, Ep 4a, discusses identifying and labeling emotions. Here we discuss check the facts, which is a skill we use in DBT to determine whether an emotional response is appropriate for a situation. This video provides step-by-step instructions on how to check the facts and provides examples of a variety of emotions that fit the facts to help build a point of reference for solving problematic emotional responses. In the next video we will cover the skill opposite action.

Opposite to Emotion Action

In this episode, we explore the dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skill opposite to emotion action or opposite action for short. You will learn what opposite action is, how to apply it using the skill check the facts explored in Episode 4b, and a number of different opposite actions for different emotions with examples from a peer with five years experience in a comprehensive DBT program.

Problem-Solving Emotion Regulation

In this video, you learn the dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) emotion regulation skill problem solving, that is how to figure out what to do when you are experiencing intense or unwanted emotions. In the previous two videos (4b, 4c) you learned the emotion regulation skills check the facts and opposite action. In the problem solving video you will learn how to put all three together to generate solutions for emotional situations. If you have any comments or questions you can send Rachel Gill an email at ilovedbt@gmail.com or you can check out DBT Peer Connections website at ilovedbt.com

Behavior Chain Analysis & Generating Solutions

Continuing with the emotion regulation skills module, this dialectical behavior therapy training video provides viewers the rationale behind behavior analysis and a step by step guide on how to conduct a behavior chain analysis, generate DBT skills based solutions, make repairs, overcorrect harm, and create prevention strategies for problematic behaviors.

ABC PLEASE Skills

This video covers dialectical behavior therapy emotion regulation ABC PLEASE skills, which are particularly aimed at reducing vulnerability to emotion mind. The skills covered are taught from a peer perspective.

Interpersonal Effectiveness DEAR MAN GIVE FAST Skills

This dialectical behavior therapy skills training video teaches the interpersonal effectiveness skills best remembered by the acronyms DEAR MAN GIVE FAST. The skills will help you learn to be more effective in getting what you want or need from others.