Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) was developed in the early 1990's to assist people who have difficulty regulating their emotions. It is beneficial to people with a wide range of difficulties, including suicidal tendencies or Borderline Personality Disorder and problems with anger, depression and hopelessness. The common thread between these conditions is that sufferers share an inability to regulate their emotions, or tend to react inappropriately to external stimuli.
People requiring DBT can demonstrate extreme emotional vulnerability, rapid mood changes, or will experience feelings that are so intense they cannot manage them. These sufferers are often prone to impulsive behaviors, which can include suicide attempts or self-harming. Often, these people also have difficulty maintaining stable relationships with friends, co-workers and even family.
In the past, many people who underwent other types of therapy stopped treatment when they felt that the focus on needing to change invalidated their feelings. Thus, a new form of psychological counseling emerged to provide a method of treatment that balanced change and tolerance by combining the teaching of adaptive skills (which help to regulate emotions) with an acceptance of behaviors, including those deemed to be self-destructive.
Treatment through DBT is an extensive process. Patients are asked to make a one year commitment in order to create lasting change and a better quality of life. There are four stages that must be moved through in a specific order. First, psychologists begin by addressing life-threatening behaviors; the first goal in the healing process is to keep the patient alive. Adaptive skills are taught to create strategies for managing unwanted behaviors. Once a client regains control, they can begin the second stage - greater emotional control. They may still suffer from intense emotion, but by the second period the volatility is under the surface. The goal during this period is to help them learn to experience the full range of emotions without becoming overwhelmed.
Once intense feelings are under control, clients move into the third and fourth steps in the process. In the third stage, they learn that they are capable of having an ordinary life, understanding this includes both joy and sorrow, and that emotional swings are a normal and healthy part of the human condition. Finally, patients are encouraged to reach a sense of spiritual fulfillment by connecting with something larger than themselves. By the end of treatment, patients are able to experience a rich emotional life while maintaining control over their actions.
Author Resource:-
Stephen Daniels is an acclaimed NetBiz SEO 2.0 researcher. If you are in need of a psychologist in New York City who has experience treating mental health issues such as depression and anxiety with DBT treatment, he recommends CBT DBT Associates.
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