Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a type of third-wave cognitive behavioural therapy created to help people manage challenging behaviours and build a life worth living. DBT teaches skills learning in the areas of mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness, in order to help achieve these goals.
DBT asks: Am I living in a way that matches up with my long-term goals? Are these behaviours bringing me closer to or further away from the life I want to live and the person I want to be?
“Dialectical” means the existence of opposites, and this concept is seen throughout DBT therapy. In its basic structure, DBT is built on strategies related to both acceptance and change. On one hand, we work to accept the difficult, but inevitable, parts of ourselves and of life. On the other hand, we change how we respond to these inevidtabilies in order to make our lives as full, meaningful, and ultimately, as liveable as possible.
There are four stages of DBT treatment which we move through. Sometimes these stages are linear, and sometimes we need to attend to a previous stage where new challenges are arising.
Step 1
Stage 1 is typically the crisis stage. This is where you feel your lowest. Your emotions and behaviours are out of control and may even be a threat to your life or physical safety. The goal of this stage is to move you to a place of safety and stablization.
Step 3
Stage 3 is where we begin to rebuild our lives. You are still navigating daily challenges, but are doing so more skillfully and confidently. This is where we begin defining your goals, building up the self, and working to create the structure that holds your life. The goal of this stage is to build a life worth living, filled with ordinary happiness and unhappiness.
Step 2
Stage 2 is “quiet desperation”. Your behaviour may no longer be life-threatening, but you are still greatly suffering day-to-day. The goal of this stage is to move you to full emotional experiencing.
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Step 4
Stage 4 is the next level of meaning-making. This optional stage is where we focus on spiritual fulfillment, where we look past our daily experience and begin to build the greater meaning behind our life and suffering.
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We are feminist, 2SLGBTQIA+ allied, and sex-positive.
We are consumer/survivors.
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We are all mad here.
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