DBT Skills: What Are They and How Can They Help?
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a highly effective and evidence-based psychotherapy that’s an offshoot of cognitive-behavioral therapy. Originally created in the ’70s to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD), DBT has since proven helpful for a wide range of mental health issues.
DBT focuses on teaching practical skills that help people manage their emotions, improve their relationships, and navigate life’s challenges. These four skills are mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotion regulation. But what are they and how do they help?
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is the foundational skill in DBT. It involves paying attention to the present moment in a non-judgmental way. Mindfulness helps people become aware of their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations without being overwhelmed by them. It also teaches how to separate feelings from thoughts. This skill is vital for grounding oneself to reduce the automatic (and often adverse) reactions to stressful situations.
Practicing mindfulness can lead to a greater sense of control over one’s thoughts and emotions. It can reduce anxiety, improve focus, and build emotional resilience. When someone is able to stay present, they can make more thoughtful decisions and respond to situations more calmly and effectively.
Distress tolerance
Many people tend to respond to stressful situations with negative coping behaviors like substance use, self-isolation, or angry outbursts. Distress tolerance skills are designed to help people cope with upsetting emotions without resorting to harmful behaviors. This includes strategies like self-soothing, distraction, and radical acceptance.
Distress tolerance skills are particularly useful in moments of crisis. They provide immediate, practical tools to manage pain and stress without making the situation worse. Distress tolerance also helps people take a step back and plan a response before acting rashly. Learning to tolerate distress means being able to handle life’s curveballs with greater ease.
Interpersonal effectiveness
Part of handling one’s own feelings means relating to other people as well. Interpersonal effectiveness helps improve communication with others and relationship dynamics. These skills help people express their needs, set boundaries, and navigate interpersonal conflicts in a healthy way. Interpersonal effectiveness has three main goals:
Objective effectiveness (asking for and getting what you want)
Interpersonal effectiveness (working through conflicts in relationships)
Self-respect effectiveness (building respect for oneself)
Strong interpersonal effectiveness skills lead to healthier, more satisfying relationships. Clear and assertive communication is important for building trust and resolving conflict. A person skilled in interpersonal effectiveness can also get their needs met without damaging their relationships.
Emotion regulation
Emotion regulation is all about dealing with emotional reactions before they snowball. This involves recognizing emotions, reducing vulnerability to negative feelings, and increasing positive emotional experiences. Emotion regulation helps people develop skills such as reality-checking, doing the opposite of what an emotion says to do, and the acceptance of emotions.
Effective emotion regulation can stop someone from being overwhelmed by their feelings. Understanding the root causes of emotions and how to address them appropriately can reduce the intensity of negative emotions. For example, someone might struggle with anger (a primary emotion) that then deteriorates into feelings of worthlessness and shame (secondary reactions). Emotion regulation teaches them to process the anger and problem-solve before they spiral.
Are you ready to try DBT?
Though it was originally developed to help those with BPD and suicidal thoughts, DBT now has much broader applications. It can be a helpful therapy to address depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, eating disorders, and other mental health issues. A therapist trained in DBT can help you develop these four core skills and start on a path of emotional self-discovery.
To find out more about whether DBT is right for you, please reach out to us.
