Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a type of therapy created by Marsha Linehan. It is a sub-group or off shoot of Cognitive Behavior Therapy. It centers around mindfulness and learning how to deal with emotional problems more rationally. While it concentrates on mindfulness, acceptance is also an incredibly important part of this therapy. Acceptance of issues allows for us to decide in a peaceful way whether we can find solutions to the problems at hand or if we should simply let them go.
Marsha Linehan
Linehan has basically provided a more scientific outline to dealing with issues. This outline is much like The Serenity Prayer, but on a grander scale. Think of Cognitive Behavior Therapy and add radical acceptance to it. This would mean that they would be come accepting of everything they have no power in changing. In time, they would be able to change problems by applying strategies learned through the therapy. CBT is more dedicated to preventing certain reactions, while DBT would be more about handling emotional situations rationally on their own.
DBT Modules
There are four different DBT Skill modules that Linehan decided to concentrate on. These modules are mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotional regulation. Think of mindfulness as both the bigger picture and a smaller part of these four modules. Learning to be mindful will help enable the ability to learn how to deal with the other three modules.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness embodies self-awareness and the ability to make decisions based upon how well you know yourself, your behaviors, and your impulses. It helps to drive us to be more considerate of all people involved, while not allowing ourselves to be walked on. You must observe the situation, be able to describe the situation, and figure out whether you can provide a solution (positive participation) or not. This process relies on the ability to be non-judgmental, effective, and one-mindful.
Being mindful will give you tools to the other modules and the other modules will teach you to be better suited for mindfulness. This identifies the point that everything is connected. How we handle situations affects the outcomes.
Interpersonal Effectiveness
Interpersonal effectiveness is another module. This is where we learn to be able to respectfully tell people our wants or our needs, but we also learn to respectfully say NO. We are taught how to deal with conflicts or confrontations by not losing our wits about us and staying relatively emotionally unattached. This allows for us to keep the situation as calm as we have control to make it. Remember that we must accept the unchangeable. We also must be the solution to those things that we can change.
Emotional Regulation
Emotional regulation and distress tolerance are the other two modules. They simply go hand in hand. Emotional regulation helps with distress tolerance a great deal. We are taught how to deal with times of distress and upping the tolerance of the emotional pain that these situations cause. The higher our distress tolerance is, the less emotional regulation is needed. We can spend time meditating and learning to calm down during stressful times. It is all about strategy.
For an updated, more in-depth look at this topic, see Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Treatment Components.