Seaside Psychological, LLC
Individual Group & Family Psychotherapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

 

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a compassionate, evidence-based type of cognitive behavioral treatment for individuals who have significant difficulty regulating their emotions and behaviors. DBT was developed by Marsha Linehan, Ph.D., as a treatment for suicidal and self-injurious individuals diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Individuals with BPD are extremely sensitive and react strongly to their emotions, often leading to actions such as self-injury, angry outbursts, or abruptly ending important relationships. While these actions can temporarily reduce emotional pain, they often wind up causing other problems that can make life even more difficult. Many international research studies have demonstrated that DBT is an effective treatment for multi-problem individuals. Both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association consider DBT to be a gold-standard treatment for BPD.

As a result of DBT’s success,  it has been adapted and proven effective for use with suicidal and self-injurious, multi-problem adolescents and their families, those with eating disorders, substance use, and anger management problems.

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What is DBT?  Briefly, DBT blends behavior therapy (change orientation) with validation (acceptance orientation) strategies. Through DBT, we all learn that we are doing the best we can AND at the same time, we need to learn other ways to manage our problems more effectively. Learning how to think and act dialectically helps individuals achieve a more balanced lifestyle, which ultimately helps people build a life that feels more meaningful and worth living. Distress, emotional pain, interpersonal difficulties, and behavioral problems such as over-eating, under-eating, using substances, self-injuring, losing emotional and behavioral control, socially withdrawing, can make it very difficult to function normally and lead a life that feels meaningful and worthwhile. DBT targets the issues that cause distress and teaches skills to deal with them without having to resort to behaviors that worsen a situation.

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Clients at Seaside Psychological, LLC participate in three modalities of treatment: 1. individual therapy (one to two times per week for 45-50 minute sessions), 2. skills training groups (once weekly for 75-90 minutes), and 3. telephone coaching, as needed. Clients will learn new, highly effective skills in group each week in order to move closer to their life goals. Individual therapy focuses on helping the people apply those skills to their daily experiences. Clients are encouraged to call their individual therapists for skills coaching when urges arise to engage in problematic or high-risk behaviors.