Find Balance & Build Resilience with DBT
Life’s emotional ups and downs can be overwhelming.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) offers practical skills to help you navigate intense emotions, improve relationships, and make mindful choices that align with your goals. Learn more about Deepen Wellness’s DBT practices in Atlanta, GA, below.
What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a structured, evidence-based form of psychotherapy that combines mindfulness practices with practical skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. Originally developed to treat borderline personality disorder, DBT has since proven effective for a wide range of emotional and behavioral challenges. Through DBT, individuals learn and apply highly efficacious strategies to change unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors, helping them build emotional health and create a “life worth living.”
What are The Benefits of DBT?
Manage Intense Emotions:
Learn techniques to understand and regulate feelings like anger, sadness, and anxiety.
Improve Relationships:
Develop skills to communicate effectively, set healthy boundaries, and build fulfilling connections.
Increase Mindfulness:
Cultivate awareness of the present moment, helping you respond thoughtfully rather than react impulsively.
Build Distress Tolerance:
Gain tools to cope with crises and accept situations beyond your control without escalating distress.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Individual DBT?
Individual DBT is used in conjunction with the DBT skills training group to increase the level of care for clients with behavioral problems that significantly interfere with their quality of life. Individual DBT Therapy is highly structured and utilizes a diary card to efficiently target the most important behaviors to address in therapy. Clients discuss life-threatening behaviors (When applicable); therapy-interfering behaviors, and quality-of-life-interfering behaviors, all using a structured format of behavior chain analysis. This is a very highly effective behavior change therapy.
What is DBT Skills Coaching?
DBT Skills Coaching is used when clients need individualized intentional focus in applying and understanding the DBT skills that are being taught in the group. By only using the DBT group, clients find that it does not provide the level of support that they need to really change the behaviors they are identifying as problems. DBT Skills Coaching helps clients get highly individualized support in understanding DBT skills, how to apply them in their lives, and provides one-on-one support outside of group support for skills integration. Skills coaching with the DBT skills training group is a highly effective and efficient way to change and create a life worth living.
Is DBT Right For Me?
If you experience intense emotions, have difficulty in relationships, or engage in behaviors you’d like to change, DBT might be a beneficial approach. Our therapists can help determine if it’s the right fit for your needs. The following questions may also determine whether DBT is right for you:
- Do you struggle with intense emotions?
- Do you have behaviors that you want to change?
- Do you use food and/or alcohol to cope?
- Do you have impulsive or reactive behaviors?
- Have you had trouble maintaining relationships?
- Would you like to create a life worth living?
What Type of DBT Do I Need?
There are three types of traditional DBT: “DBT Skills Training Group“, “Individual DBT“, and “DBT Skills Coaching“. Usually, a combination of DBT skills Training Group and Individual DBT or DBT Skills Coaching are suggested for the best outcomes. The actual DBT skills that are the foundation of the DBT practice are taught in a group setting. DBT is based on using the skills, so the DBT group is an essential part of your DBT Treatment.
The 4 Main Topics of DBT
#1 Mindfulness
Methods for increased mindfulness include behaviors that strengthen the connections to our prefrontal cortex, making it easier to access the higher-order thinking of the brain. Mindfulness activities can be yoga, meditation, guided imagery, breath work, tai chi, qi gong, mindful walks, etc.
- Practice of attention and intention
- Cultivating a compassionate, curious, and non-judgmental relationship to self
- 3 states of mind: emotional mind, logical mind, and wise mind
- 3 “what” skills: observe, describe, participate to get more fully in each moment
- 3 “how” skills: non-judgmentally, effectively, and one-mindfully to be more open to change patterns
#2 Interpersonal Effectiveness
Methods for increased mindfulness include behaviors that strengthen the connections to our prefrontal cortex, making it easier to access the higher-order thinking of the brain. Mindfulness activities can be yoga, meditation, guided imagery, breath work, tai chi, qi gong, mindful walks, etc.
- Obtaining Objectives Skillfully- DEAR MAN, GIVE FAST
- Objective effectiveness- getting what you want
- Relationship effectiveness- keeping the relationship
- Self- respect effectiveness
- Building Relationships and Ending Destructive Ones- Finding and getting people you like, Mindfulness of others, and Ending relationships.
- Walking the Middle Path- Balancing and accepting change in relationships- Effectively manage your relationships and yourself
#3 Distress Tolerance Skills
The Distress Tolerance module is a key component of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which is designed to help individuals manage and tolerate emotional distress more effectively. This module focuses on developing skills to endure and cope with painful emotions and situations without resorting to harmful behaviors or actions.
- Distracting: Using activities, sensations, or thoughts to take your mind off distressing feelings.
- Self-Soothing: Engaging in comforting activities or sensory experiences to calm oneself.
- Improving The Moment : Using strategies to enhance the current moment, such as practicing mindfulness or visualizing a positive scenario.
- Radical Acceptance: Embracing reality as it is, without fighting against it or wishing it were different.
The goal is to increase a person’s ability to handle crises and emotional pain in a healthy and adaptive manner.
#4 Emotion Regulation
3 Goals of the emotion regulation skills training module are to:
- Understand and Name your Emotional Experience – What do emotions do?, What makes it hard to regulate emotions?
- Changing Emotional Responses- 3 steps – Check the Facts, Problem Solving, and Opposite Action
- Reducing Vulnerability to Emotion Mind – ABC Please
Get Started with DBT at Deepen Wellness in Atlanta, GA
We offer both individual DBT sessions and group skills training. Our compassionate therapists will work with you to create a personalized plan that supports your journey toward emotional well-being. Partner with our licensed and experienced clinicians today by calling (404) 964-6629 or by clicking the “start your journey” button below.