Hey, everyone! Thanks for checking back.
Now, today I'm going to talk with you about DBT therapy or Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. So, stay tuned!
So, like I said, today I'm going to talk about DBT therapy (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy).
Now, to give you a little history of DBT, and I'm going to try to keep this as short as I can, but if any of you want to Google it or get a workbook and check it out
do that. 'Cause there is a lot more to it than I can ever get into a Youtube video.
So DBT therapy was created by Marsha Linehan and she was studying, she was a psychology researcher, I believe, at the University of Washinton at the time.
What? Washington. Hey, Huskies! Okay.
Anyway, she was studying there and she decided due to her own struggles with Borderline Personality Disorder,
she noticed that a lot of therapists that were working with patients like this, that we were, what we call, getting "burnt out".
And when in therapy we talk about burn out, it's like you really want to help this client, but you honestly have to refer them because you're so exhausted.
You've tried everything. They're still having suicide attempts and you don't know what else to do. You're feeling kind of helpless.
And so they recommend as a therapist that you refer them out, and so she came up with Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
combining some of CBT therapy skills, which I have a video on CBT and you want to click on the link here actually if you want to check it out.
And it's combining that and also some of the Buddhist principles about being aware and mindful. She kind of squished those together and created DBT therapy.
And I made some notes here. I have my laptop down here. That's why I'm looking down, so that I don't forget any of the contents of it because
DBT therapy is something that has 2 parts. First of all, you see a therapist like me, who's a certified DBT therapist and they'll see you each week for an hour just like your regular therapy.
But on top of that, you also are in a DBT group and you meet for 2 to 2 1/2 hours each week. That's honestly where you get into the nitty gritty of this. You do a lot of homework.
If any of you are looking for a workbook, I have one at my website KatiMorton.com in the Widget, a great DBT workbook and you can find it that way.
Now, without further ado, because it can get, like I said, it's really intensive. There are 4 modules to DBT and I'm going to go through them really quickly, so that I can keep this short.
But if any of you want me to do more videos on this, give this a thumbs up and in the comments below let me know what topic you want me to talk about more.
I've already done a video on the first one, so I'm just going to say Mindfulness is one of the first.
They call it like the foundation of DBT and I have a video on that, so you can click this link for more information on Mindfulness
and I'll talk about the What skills, the How skills and all that jazz. The next portion, #2 is Distress Tolerance.
Now, Distress Tolerance is what I talk about a lot when I say: "Distract yourself! Don't do it! Don't give into the urges!"
And they talk about distracting with ACCEPTS.
DBT is all about the acronyms, so get ready because you're going to have to remember a lot of these.
Now, ACCEPTS talks about Activities, like: "Hey, get out of the house. Go see a friend. Get coffee. Do some art". I don't know. Have an activity!
Contribute; help out others in your community. Look at us, we're so good.
Comparisons, Emotions, Push Away, like: "I can't deal with this now". Push it to the back, right?
Thoughts and Sensations; so if you looked at all the first letters of all those words, it reads ACCEPTS.
Now, there are others under that, but I want to keep going 'cause you can also let me know if you like and you want me to talk about Distress Tolerance in more detail.
Now, the next portion of DBT is Emotion Regulation because, like I talk about in my Borderline Personality Disorder video which you can click here to view,
I talk about regulating our emotion because when we have Borderline we feel like it's all out of whack. We worry: "Don't leave me! Wait, no! I hate you! Agh!"
We just feel really overwhelmed. And so, regulating our emotions can really be the key to us being more participative with our friends,
feeling like we can really love others how others love us and we start to feel a little bit more safe.
And our mood, instead of being up and down like this, it starts to kind of level out and it can really help.
And this, the main part of Emotion Regulation is, I guess, the best way to say is a huge chunk of CBT therapy.
They want you to realize what event has caused this, what emotion came out of it, what action you took as a result
and tries to slow down the process and get us better able to regulate it without just jumping to a conclusion. Right?
So I'm going to scoot down that. And there a lot of acronyms under this, so like I said, get prepared.
Now, the last, the 4th portion of DBT therapy is Interpersonal Effectiveness.
Now, something that we struggle with when we have BPD is having close relationships and
having people that we really trust, we love. We feel like they trust and love us in return, and we're secure in that and having that secure attachment. Right?
So in this portion we talk about kind of how to assert yourself while at the same time not being aggressive. Right?
So: "Hey, Sean, what you said to me really hurt my feelings and I understand you're going through a lot right now, but I felt very misunderstood"
or very unimportant or whatever it is you're feeling and you're able to express that without being like:
"You stupid son of a gun! I hate your guts!" And bah, bah, bah! Right?
And it teaches us how to better communicate. So if any of you are considering DBT or if you've been told or have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder
I would look into it. It is amazing! It's a lot of hard work, but it's so worth it. You're worth it.
Check out the workbook on my website, the one that's in my Widget because it's amazing.
And doing the homework and putting the work in will really mean a happier and healthy life down the road.
And isn't that what we're all working for, right?
So keep checking back. Like I said, let me know. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel.
And check out my other videos that I linked because it's really helpful and it will give you a bigger picture of what this is about.
We'll keep putting one foot in front of another as we work towards a Healthy Mind and a Healthy Body.
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