Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

The acceptance element drives an intention of accepting one’s self, one’s emotions, thoughts, other people and the ways of the world.

The change element of DBT involves learning what triggers one’s negative emotions, thoughts, feelings and behaviours and working pragmatically to form active strategies to combat negativity.

DBT assists with developing a range of active coping skills and altering one’s perspective and experience to encourage increased emotional tolerance and growth.

DBT has become especially known for its practical and structure approach and for it efficacy in the treatment of pervasive patterns of intense, complex and prolonged maladaptive emotion and behaviour patterns, such as may exist with chronic additions, eating disorders and borderline personality disorder.

What does DBT involve?

• Working collaboratively with your psychologist to become comfortable with the ideas of acceptance and change. This may include learning to embrace situations that are both positive and negative without judgment and learning how to regulate your thoughts and feelings in these situations.
• Developing and enhancing important emotional and social skills. These may include;
  • Emotional regulation
  • Focusing on present experiences, rather than the past of future
  • Communicating and interacting with others around you in a positive way
  • Learning to actively experience and tolerate stressful emotional experiences to encourage emotional growth and prevent the maintenance of negative thought patterns or behaviours
  • Practising skills and strategies in session and within a therapeutic alliance, to enable a transfer of skills and improvement of daily life experiences.

If this sounds like a therapeutic approach that might work for you or that you would like to hear more about, speak to our intake team about which of our psychologists is able to discuss how this approach may be helpful for your situation and your therapeutic goals.