Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Dialectical behavior therapy The first suicide-focused treatment to reduce the probability of suicidal behavior successfully was DBT, an outpatient psychological treatment approach developed in the 1970s and 1980s by Marsha Linehan, a clinical psychologist who is arguably one of the most influential suicide researchers of the past century. DBT comprises both individual psychotherapy and skills-based educational groups. Individual therapy sessions and skills training groups are typically scheduled on a weekly basis for six months to a full year, and are organized around four core skill sets involving self-regulatory processes: mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation
Four Core Skills of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
|
Skill |
What It Is |
|
Mindfulness |
The ability to observe what is happening to you in the moment without judgment or self-criticism |
|
Interpersonal Effectiveness |
The ability to interact effectively with others, regardless of the type of relationship one has with them |
|
Distress Tolerance |
The ability to withstand and endure stress and other negative emotional states |
|
Emotion Regulation |
The ability to identify or recognize one’s emotions and to change or influence them |
At its core, DBT seeks to alter patients’ ability make effective decisions during periods of uncertainty and intense emotional distress and to help them make decisions that improve quality of life.
studies have found that patients who receive DBT are somewhere around 50% less likely to attempt suicide than patients who receive more traditional forms of mental health treatment.
DBT is easily the most well-researched and well-studied mental health treatment for suicide prevention. It is, in some respects, the standard against which all other suicide-focused treatments are compared.