Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) At Spring Hill Recovery Center

During treatment at Spring Hill, your care team may recommend a form of therapy called dialectical behavior therapy. This evidence-based therapy helps people learn how to regulate their emotions for experiencing better stress management, increased self-awareness, improved relationships, greater resilience during life challenges, and other benefits in support of their long-term recovery.

What Is Dialectical Behavior Therapy?

Adapted from cognitive behavioral therapy, DBT was first developed to help people with borderline personality disorder, but it has also been found effective in helping people with other mental health disorders, including addiction, and in particular people who have difficulty managing their emotions.

DBT provides people with practical skills for developing emotional regulation, coping with difficult situations, and building healthier relationships. It also teaches the concept of “dialectical” thinking, or the acknowledgment of multiple points of view and acceptance of thoughts that are seemingly at odds with each other. An example would be “I am perfect the way I am, and my behavior needs to change.” Dialectical thinking helps people balance change and acceptance.

DBT Skills For Addiction Recovery

When participating in DBT, clients learn skills for regulating their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is much more than the awareness of your experience. It’s being aware while simultaneously adopting a nonjudgmental attitude and embracing compassion, acceptance, curiosity, and other aspects of mindfulness. In many cases, intense emotions like anger or fear lead to negative thoughts, which perpetuate unwanted behaviors. Practicing mindfulness can help people become more aware of their feelings and thoughts and less reactive to them.

Distress Tolerance

People who experience emotions more intensely may experience distress more often. Difficult emotions or situations may lead to substance use, which may develop into an addiction. Distress tolerance skills help people build confidence in knowing that they can manage and endure difficulties without resorting to drug or alcohol use.

Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation could be thought of as turning down the volume on your emotions. Through DBT, people learn first how to recognize intense emotions, then accept and manage them with healthy coping skills and strategies.

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Learning skills like active listening, conflict resolution, assertiveness, and clear communication can help people interact with others more successfully, leading to healthy relationships and improved self-esteem. This can be especially beneficial to people facing addiction whose behaviors may have led to misunderstandings and other conflicts within relationships.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy’s Key Functions

DBT involves both one-on-one and group therapy sessions, giving clients more personalized attention in learning new skills as well as a supportive environment for practicing them.

Enhancing Capabilities

It is assumed that people participating in DBT need to learn or develop particular beneficial life skills, such as mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotional regulation. These skills can be learned and adopted through group sessions, where participants practice the skills and give and receive feedback.

Generalizing Capabilities

Clients also receive support for incorporating these news skills into their everyday lives. The therapist may help by providing “homework” assignments and more tailored fine-tuning for improving skills during one-on-one sessions.

Increasing Motivation And Decreasing Dysfunctional Behaviors

Also typically accomplished through individual therapy sessions, the therapist can help the client develop the motivation to change behaviors that are not contributing to a life worth living. Clients learn how to recognize self-destructive beliefs and behaviors, notice how their actions have affected their life overall, practice healthy problem-solving, and remain mindful and more balanced.

Structuring The Environment

Structuring the environment can refer to one of two things: 1) how the therapist structures the program to reinforce positive behaviors and progress or 2) how the therapist helps the client modify their environment to avoid addiction triggers, such as social circles that promote drug use. Both are typically provided during treatment.

Get Started Today At Spring Hill

Ready to make drug or alcohol use part of your past? Call Spring Hill today to speak confidentially with one of our specialists about getting started on the path to recovery.