DBT has one main goal: to help people build a life they feel is worth living, even in the face of intense emotional pain.
Those key goals can be broken down into a few pillars:
- Mindfulness
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- Being fully present in the moment without judgment.
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- Helps people observe and experience their thoughts and feelings without getting flooded by them.
- Distress tolerance
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- Building skills to tolerate pain and crises without making things worse (like self-harming, drinking, or lashing out).
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- It aims to establish coping strategies, such as distraction, self-soothing, and radical acceptance.
- Emotion regulation
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- Learning to understand, name, and manage strong emotions.
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- Techniques include recognizing triggers, increasing positive emotions, and shrinking emotional vulnerability.
- Interpersonal effectiveness
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- Teaching how to communicate needs, set boundaries, and maintain relationships while still respecting oneself and others.
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- It’s about assertiveness, negotiating, and saying “no” in a healthy way.
What makes DBT unique is the word “dialectical.” It’s about balancing two seemingly opposite ideas: acceptance and change.
Clients are persuaded to accept themselves as they are while also working hard to change behaviors that aren’t helping in DBT.
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