Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Build a Life Worth Living
Unite Acceptance and Change
Dialectical behavior therapy offers structure to cope with emotions and avoid toxic behaviors successfully, equipping you with skills to manage your thoughts, feelings, and relationships. At Northridge Addiction Treatment Center, we want to ensure we are providing you with the most valuable and effective treatments for addiction and co-occurring conditions. For that reason, we offer DBT and other treatments backed by medically researched evidence at our facility. Our therapist works closely with you to replace the emotions that trigger substance use with coping skills for a better life, helping you envision, express, pursue, and maintain goals.
What Is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)?
Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, is a comprehensive, evidence-based type of cognitive behavioral therapy treatment. This leading treatment was initially designed for borderline personality disorder by Dr. Marsha M Linehan, a mental health researcher at the University of Washington. DBT has proven to be effective with a broad range of mental health conditions and co-occurring disorders.
The primary principle of DBT is the fusion of both acceptance and change as requirements for improvement. The treatment involves a balance of accepting life’s certainty and challenging an individual’s desire to give in to their affliction. It focuses on replacing dysfunctional behaviors with positive coping skills such as mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance. DBT incorporates strategies and concepts to promote sobriety and eliminate the length and harmful effects of relapses. It has been demonstrated to help individuals cope with severe emotional imbalances caused by the co-occurrence of addiction and a mental condition.
What Are the 4 Modules of Dialectical Behavior Therapy?
Module1
Core Mindfulness
DBT mindfulness teaches individuals to observe, describe and participate fully in the present moment, regulating their attention with a nonjudgmental mindset.
Module2
Interpersonal Effectiveness
DBT’s interpersonal effectiveness strategy targets practicing social skills and effectively navigating interpersonal situations and conflict to improve relationships.
Module3
Emotional Regulation
DBT’s emotional regulation skills seek to better manage an individual’s personal emotions by identifying and labeling feelings that serve as barriers to changing negative behaviors.
Module4
Distress Tolerance
DBT distress tolerance educates individuals on crisis management and acceptance strategies to turn affliction into opportunities for constructive coping techniques.
What Are the 5 Key Functions of DBT Treatment?
Function1
Enhancing capabilities
This critical function includes practicing the four DBT modules to improve several essential life skills.
Function2
Generalizing capabilities
This DBT function works by applying treatment benefits to an individual’s daily life through everyday practice and troubleshooting or therapy sessions.
Function3
Improving motivation and reducing dysfunctional behaviors
Another key function accomplished in individual therapy involves prioritizing negative behaviors to address the most severe, motivate change, and reduce actions that do not influence life positivity.
Function4
Enhancing and maintaining therapist capabilities and motivation
This DBT function involves maintaining effective treatment despite clinical challenges, such as complex, challenging behaviors taxing on resources, by supporting and encouraging therapists.
Function5
Structuring the environment
This function of DBT is a strategy aimed to help modify an individual’s environment to one that is most conducive to the reinforcement of promoting progress and structuring the treatment around that progress.
Find Meaningful Recovery
Our caring and compassionate specialists are eager to help you comfortably navigate this journey to recovery. Our individualized treatment plan, programs, and therapies may be a perfect match for you or your loved one. Let us assist you in living the happy life you deserve. It starts with a phone call.
