If you have been struggling with depression, it is time to try a new treatment approach. If you have never tried Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) before, it is time for you to do so. Dialectical behavior therapy is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy aimed at teaching patients how to cope with stress, anxiety, and improve their relationships.
The Three Fundamental Elements of Dialectical Behavior Therapy-DBT
1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – CBT: This is a step during which the patient learns new behaviors. There are four different strategies used to change a person's behavior: exposure therapy, contingency management, skills training, and cognitive therapy. During skills training, the patients will attend skill groups, which require him to interact with new people through different ways and later do his homework to ensure he is making progress in the treatment process.
2. Validation: If the patient has borderline personality disorder, the cognitive behavioral therapy sessions could cause him great distress. Since borderline personality disorder patients do not want to change and are afraid of changes, they will feel resistant to the changes introduced in cognitive behavioral therapy. Therefore, therapists decide to offer validation among change pushing to make sure the patient feel easy with the process and will not resist the change.
3. Dialectics: In DBT, dialectics has three basic assumptions: (1) Everything is interconnected to one another. (2) Changes are inevitable. (3) Opposite forces can be integrated to form a new truth about oneself.
Who Needs Dialectical Behavior Therapy?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy is used to treat a wide range of conditions, such as Borderline Personality Disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, and people suffering from self-harm. It is important that the patient cooperates with the therapist when doing this kind of treatment. People who have constant suicidal thoughts and people constantly harm themselves are advised to take DBT as their recovery method.
DBT has made it possible for therapists to cure depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and many other types of mental illnesses. Through group skills training of four modules: emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, mindfulness, and distress tolerance, DBT helps the patient regain his control over his emotions, improve his self-image and his interpersonal relationships. The progress is made gradually and eventually the patient will transform into a new person that he has never thought he could become.
If you or a person in your family is suffering from depression, suicidal thoughts, self-harm, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, or other types of mental condition, it is time to try DBT and see how much improvement you could get.
For an updated, more in-depth look at this topic, see Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for BPD & Emotions.