Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) skills group

This group is currently not available.
In DBT Skills groups, four skill modules are taught to specifically help people to better manage behavioral, emotional and cognitive instability. They are designed to help people who experience difficulties with: anger or the expression with anger, irritability, periodic depression, stress and anxiety, intense or unstable relationships, impulsive behaviour, and feelings of emptiness.

New skills are presented each week and homework is assigned for people to practice during the week. Homework is then reviewed in group. The goal of DBT Skills groups is to gain new skills, get better at the skills you have and to be able to use the skills when they are really needed, such as when you are experiencing intense emotions, or a crisis situation.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Skills Group

learn about Christchurch DBT Programme

What is DBT?

DBT stands for Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. This may not mean a lot to you unless you've researched therapy, or done lots of therapy yourself. So what does it mean? Let's start with dialectical. A dialectic is a tension or conflict between two opposing wants or truths. For instance, if I were a person who thought a lot about harming myself, then working with dialectics might help myself and people around me to acknowledge two seemingly opposite truths: that thinking a lot about harming myself is unhelpful (it might make me ashamed, and put me at risk of actually harming myself), but it may also feel quite helpful (it might be better than some more problematic ways of coping, cutting may release endorphins to make me feel better, when I talk about it I might actually get me help for my other problems). Opposing truths can be true in different ways. Life isn't black and white, it's shades of grey.

An important dialectic for both therapist and client to work with in DBT is balancing acceptance and change. A good example is from a quote from DBT creator Marsha Linehan: "I accept you as you are and that you're doing the best you can at the moment, and, also I'm betting that really building a life worth living will involve making some changes". The acceptance versus change dialectic isn't a gimmick. It has to be really genuine, on behalf of therapist and client, for therapy to bring about the most effective lasting improvements. The dialectical emphasis on acceptance is one of the things that distinguishes DBT from cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), which is more exclusively change focused, and for some it can feel invalidating to the point that it becomes ineffective.

So that's the dialectic bit of DBT in a nutshell. What about Behaviour? In DBT client and therapist focus on specific behaviours - things that the client sees as problems, and wants to change. Some common examples include suicide attempts, alcohol or drug addictions, self harm, binging, purging, or restricting food (anorexia or bulimia), problematic behaviours in relationships, or risky or abusive behaviour. Often when we work on behaviours, clients assume that we're going to tell them to just stop their behaviour. But the odds are, if it were that simple to stop a problematic behaviour, you would have stopped already. This is where the DBT skills help. The skills, which are explained more below, offer alternative ways of coping, making it easier to give up a destructive coping behaviour. Another helpful DBT tool is the diary card. This is a way of tracking day-by-day the links between emotions, problematic behaviours, and the use of the skills. It's pretty structured, and it takes some commitment to fill it out regularly, but we find that people we work with who use the diary card regularly get a lot of benefit out of therapy.

Is DBT for me?

DBT was originally developed to help people with really longstanding difficulties - people who other styles of therapy had failed to help. Often clients who come to us for DBT have already tried other types of psychotherapy or counselling, but found it wasn't enough. Some of those who DBT was originally designed to help had the (appallingly named, and frequently misunderstood) diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, but over time research has shown DBT to be effective for a wide range of difficulties, including long standing depression, severe anxiety or dissociation, trauma, and alcohol or drug issues.

Diagnoses and labels aside, people who come for DBT treatment often describe experiencing some (but not necessarily all) of the below:

Being "all or nothing" people, who may struggle under pressure to see things in terms other than "black or white" or "good or bad."
High emotional sensitivity. Feeling emotions more strongly than others, perhaps to the point of feeling "allergic to emotions" or emotionally "shut down" due to frequent overwhelm.
Feeling frequently out of control, perhaps with repetitive highly painful patterns playing out in relationships again and again, or frequent crisis.
Being highly sensitive to abandonment, going to extreme measures to avoid losing important relationships, or withdrawing from relationships to avoid abandonment.
Difficult childhoods, which may have involved trauma or abuse.
Not having a clear and consistent sense of self, of knowing who I am and what my purpose in life is.

If you do identify with some or all of the items on this list, then the odds are that having a happy or meaningful life is feeling like a pretty big challenge. The good news is that there are forms of therapy such as DBT that have proven track records in bringing lasting relief from the pain. It takes work, and it takes time to get the benefits, but it is definitely possible.

How will I benefit from DBT?

The benefits of DBT correspond well with the four modules of DBT skills that are taught, practiced and refined throughout the therapy. These skills can be learned out of books, or from a google search, which we'd encourage you to do if you're interested, but for most people getting the full benefit from them also requires therapy with a trained DBT therapist.

Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills. If you're a person who can challenge and assert yourself in relationships, but sometimes end up hurting or losing valued relationships in the process, then the interpersonal effectiveness skills that come under the acronym GIVE, might help you to avoid a lot of suffering. On the other hand, if you tend to accomodate others without meeting your own needs, then it might be that the DEAR MAN skills can revolutionise your relationships. Other skills help with things such as maintaining or increasing your sense of self respect or self esteem in relationships.

Distress Tolerance Skills. If you're a person who sometimes get into a crisis and ends up doing something that makes things worse (perhaps some of the problematic behaviours discussed above), then these skills may benefit you. They're practical. They're skills which real people over the years have tried and found useful in the face of overwhelming situations. Some are really simple, for instance squeezing an ice-cube in your hand, and waiting until it melts before acting on an urge to do something you'd later regret. If it seems simple, try actually doing it. This is about getting to know yourself, finding out what works for you, and actually doing it when things get difficult.

Emotional Regulation Skills. Who wouldn't benefit from being able to keep a more even keel at times, riding out the emotional highs and lows? DBT was developed specifically for people with very intense emotions. Some of these skills can help with identifying and naming emotions, identifying barriers to changing emotions, and increasing pleasant emotions. Though sometimes the focus is on changing painful emotions, there is always an emphasis also on accepting the whole human range of emotions.

Mindfulness Skills. Similar to meditation, mindfulness involves paying attention specifically, to the present moment, in a non-judgmental way. Mindfulness is adapted from eastern and western spiritual traditions, but is taught in a secular way in DBT. What's the benefit of this? Mindfulness is a core skill in DBT, because the ability to focus and be aware of our external and internal reality is necessary to use all of the rest of the skills. Also, there is a huge amount of research from the last 20 years on how mindfulness and meditation helps our physical and mental wellbeing, even to the extent of physically changing our brains to make us less vulnerable to negative emotions.

So these are the core DBT skills, and how they could benefit you. Traditionally DBT therapy involves weekly group therapy (primarily for teaching the above skills), and individual therapy (which helps to adapt the skills to the unique circumstances of your life, and deal with deeper personal issues that might not be a fit for the group context). However, DBT has also been adapted for use with those who may not want or need to do group as well as individual therapy.

What's the next step?

We're going to assume that you've read the information above, and you're reading on because you think that DBT may be able to help you or someone you know. However, it's a big step to go from being interested, maybe even hopeful, to beginning to get the benefits from actually doing the therapy.

If you're a sort of person who likes to research thoroughly in advance, you might like to read up online about DBT. A favourite site of ours is www.dbtselfhelp.com. You're also welcome to email your questions to us.

If you're interested in the full program of individual and group therapy, then read more here.

Perhaps you're a person who goes more by feeling, intuition, or what your gut is telling you. In that case, there's no substitute for talking in person or on the phone with a potential DBT therapist. We often encourage people to shop around for a therapist! Talk with someone, go away, and ask yourself if you feel like you could trust this person on a deep level. If the idea of shopping around appeals to you, you may feel more comfortable spelling that out in advance to a therapist, saying you'll probably meet with a few potential therapists before deciding.

Psychotherapists, counsellors, and psychologists may have slightly different styles, but there shouldn't be a significant difference if they're practicing DBT with you. It's OK to ask about a potential therapists training or experience in DBT, if that feels important to you. As people with psychotherapy training, we're biased - we think of psychotherapists as specialists in talk therapy (this training isn't particularly focused on research skills, like psychologists). However, there are good and less good clinicians in all the different mental health professions.

Taking the plunge to meet with a therapist can be a huge step. We encourage you to take this plunge as it can (and should) be life changing. At Lucid, our style is to see someone for a few sessions before making a commitment to continue together. If we genuinely don't think that we're the best person to be working with you, we'll refer you on to another professional. At the moment we're offering free initial consultations to help people who may feel hesitant about taking the first step. Click here to read more about us, or click book now to make an online booking for a first session (no obligation).