Knowra Dialectical behavior therapy Dialectical behavior therapy Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a structured psychotherapy that combines behavioral change strategies with acceptance and teaches skills for managing emotions, distress, attention, and relationships.
DBT skills training : A structured group or individual curriculum teaching mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. It delivers the four skill sets that form DBT’s teachable core.
Cognitive behavioral therapy : A psychotherapy that targets patterns of thought and behavior to reduce psychological distress. DBT retains behavioral methods while placing them within a stronger framework of acceptance.
Borderline personality disorder : A mental disorder characterized by instability in relationships, self-image, emotions, and impulse control. DBT was developed for people with this diagnosis and remains a prominent treatment option.
Mentalization-based treatment : A psychotherapy that helps people understand behavior in terms of mental states in themselves and others. It also treats borderline personality disorder but centers reflective understanding rather than DBT skills training.
Marsha M. Linehan : An American psychologist who developed dialectical behavior therapy. Linehan created DBT while seeking an effective treatment for chronically suicidal clients.
Behavioral chain analysis : A method for tracing the events, vulnerabilities, thoughts, feelings, and actions that led to a behavior. Therapists use it to identify where skills could interrupt a harmful sequence.
Mindfulness : The practice of attending to present experience with awareness and without immediate judgment. DBT adapts mindfulness practices into concrete skills for noticing and directing attention.
Suicidal behavior : Actions or preparations intended to bring about one’s own death. Reducing life-threatening behavior is DBT’s highest-priority treatment target.
Schema therapy : A psychotherapy that addresses enduring maladaptive patterns through cognitive, behavioral, and experiential methods. It is another structured treatment for borderline personality disorder, with a different model and therapeutic toolkit.
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder : A 1993 book by Marsha M. Linehan presenting DBT’s theory, treatment structure, and clinical methods. This foundational work set out the model and its original application.
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