What Is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?

Dialectical Behavior Therapy was developed by Marsha Linehan and started to become more widely known to the public around 1993, upon the publication of her book and skills training manual. DBT is a comprehensive treatment approach that was first developed to help clients that had persistent self-injurious behavior (like cutting, or burning oneself) and/or had a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder. The treatment includes: 1. having a client participate in individual therapy, 2. Attending skills group, 3. Having access to 24/7 phone coaching, 4. Having ancillary treatment, (as needed, like psychiatry, family therapy), and 5. having the therapeutic professionals involved meet weekly in order to maintain treatment objectives and prevent burnout. Since DBT first came out there has been, and continues to be, ongoing research on the treatment and efficacy of the approach with a variety of clinical populations.

Although the original intention was for DBT to help clients with Borderline Personality Disorder and parasuicidal behaviors, it’s application and use became widespread to other clinical populationships: such as clients with eating disorders, addiction, mood disorders, trauma and more. Furthermore, more recent studies have looked at the application of one

or more of the five components of the DBT approach on various clinical populations and some research is showing good outcome data to reinforce the benefits of using DBT skills group or individual DBT therapy alone.

The DBT Skills Group teaches four core skills: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation and Interpersonal Effectiveness. What makes these skills so effective, in my opinion, is how easy they are to understand, remember, and follow. In addition, they are so practical and apply to so many basic aspects of life, that often people refer to them as “life skills that anyone can benefit from”.