DIALECTICAL BEHAVIOR THERAPY OFFERED BY FREE CLINICS

In simple terms, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a type of talking treatment offered to people with behavioral issues. This treatment method is based on the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), but the DBT treatment method is adapted to assist people who feel emotions intensely.

DBT has been mainly used to treat issues that are associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), but the method has also been found successful in treating many other mental health disorders.

The DBT treatment aims at helping you make changes to your unhelpful behaviors, but at the same time, focuses on accepting who you are. The relationship between you and your therapist is very important in the DBT treatment method, and the relationship is used to motivate changes in you.

Goals of DBT Program

The goals of the DBT program offered by our low income clinics is to help you understand ways to manage difficult emotions by allowing you to understand, feel, and accept your emotions. As you learn to accept your emotions, you will learn ways to regulate them and change your behavior. To help you achieve the goals of the treatment, therapists at our low income clinics make use a mix of change and acceptance techniques.

The word ‘Dialectics’ refers to trying to balance two opposite sides to make them go together. In DBT, the therapist will work with you to help you balance between ‘Acceptance’ and ‘Change’. As the terms simply say, ‘Acceptance’ is about accepting yourself and ‘Change’ refers to making positive changes in your life.

In the course of the treatment, you will understand that these goals are not as conflicting as it first might have seemed. For instance, when you understand and accept yourself, your feelings, your emotions, and your experiences, you will be able to find efficient ways to deal with all of them in a proactive way.

DBT treatment aims at letting people with behavioral issues understand their personality and psychological issues in a better way. The therapist will help you to understand that your behavior is the outcome of your emotional outbursts and help you to control and deal with it. The therapist will offer help to you in accepting your behavior and personality, and will then help you make changes to the undesirable behaviors.