Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Individual Therapy
Comprehensive DBT includes weekly individual therapy. You and your therapist will work collaboratively to address your goals in a structured way. Your therapist will help you balance acceptance strategies with change-oriented, practical skills to build mastery over difficult problems. The goal is for you to learn how to “be your own therapist”, and to feel empowered to solve problems as they arise.
Skills Training
DBT Skills Training is an integral part of behavioral change. Skills training is the acquisition of a new capability - like learning a new language in a classroom.
You will learn four new skill sets including mindfulness: the practice of being fully aware and present in the current moment; distress tolerance: how to tolerate intense emotion and pain in difficult situations; interpersonal effectiveness: how to ask for what you want and say no while maintaining self-respect; and emotion regulation: how to change emotions that you want to change.
You will be assigned homework to practice the new behavioral strategy you learned in session.
Phone Coaching
DBT uses on-the-fly phone coaching to assist clients in practicing their newly learned skills outside of therapy. It is important to rehearse behavior in all contexts, such that the skill becomes familiar and easily accessible no matter what. Your therapist will help you to 1. identify what the problem is you are trying to solve for, 2. assess if you know what to do (or not) to tackle the situation, and 3. determine if you know how to do what the moment requires.
Your therapist will provide encouragement and take the stance of a coach.