There are people who can feel their emotions so strongly and so overwhelmingly that they often find themselves engaging in behavior that is driven solely by their emotions. Without meaning to, they often find themselves navigating their life events based on their emotional state, with less thought given to alternative problem solving strategies or long-term consequences.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) was developed by a woman named Marsha Linehan who was psychiatrically hospitalized for over 2 years in the 1960s. Dr. Linehan states that the core issue was that the available treatments did not address her challenges with emotional regulation and how she responded when she was emotionally overwhelmed.
As a result, she built a career where, using CBT as a foundation, she developed a new type of psychotherapy. The goal was to develop a way to help people learn how to assess their life events and their
powerful emotional reactions.
A key idea in DBT is that life events often lead to a predictable sequence of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. By learning and practicing a core set of DBT skills, people can gradually learn to balance using logic and emotion to respond to life events.
DBT helps people better navigate undesired emotional reactions by increasing their skills in mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Cleanly delivered DBT ensures that patients have access to a personal therapist, to help learn more about their emotional responses to life events. There is also access to a group class, where they can learn
new DBT skills. Finally, there is also a coach who can be contacted during periods of overwhelming emotions. Individual therapists often introduce key DBT concepts and the structure of DBT programs, and then refer patients to more specialized DBT providers.
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