Cognitive-behavioral therapy seeks to help people change negative thinking patterns to change negative patterns of behavior. Dialectical behavioral therapy is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) developed in the 1980s. The focus of DBT is to live in the moment, accepting yourself and situations as they are right now.

Dialectical behavioral therapy was originally developed to help people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and experiencing persistent thoughts of suicide. Today it is also used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy at Supreme Wellness Recovery teaches patients to accept each moment as it comes, engage with the present, and create a life of meaning.

What Are the Six Main Points of Dialectical Behavior Therapy?

Dialectical behavior therapy uses a six-point structure. Supreme Wellness Recovery therapists refer to the points to help our patients develop the new skills needed to change their behavior.

The six points are:

1. Acceptance and Change: Accept the current circumstances to make necessary changes
2. Behavior: Analyze current problems and replace them with healthy behaviors
3. Cognitive: Changing thoughts or actions that aren’t productive
4. Skill Sets: Learning new hobbies and new skills
5. Collaboration: Work as part of a team to solve problems
6. Support: Identify your strengths and the positive features you have to offer others

In conjunction with the DBT core skills, the goal of the six points is to help DBT clients reach a state of inner peace

What Are the DBT Skills?

Our core skills therapists seek to help patients at Supreme Wellness Recovery develop through Dialectical Behavioral Therapy are mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Core Mindfulness

Core mindfulness is the ability to focus the mind and attention on the present moment. It is considered the foundation for all the other skills learned through DBT. Mindfulness helps you accept even your most powerful emotions, as acceptance of emotional discomfort is necessary for making changes.

Distress Tolerance

This skill teaches our DBT patients how to use self-soothing techniques and reframe their thoughts when challenged by uncomfortable or anxiety-producing events.

Instead of becoming overwhelmed by emotions, Supreme Wellness Recovery teaches individuals to soothe themselves in healthy ways. This action leads to better decision-making.

Emotional Regulation

This module teaches the importance of identifying emotions and any obstacles that stand in the way of changing them. Learning how to regulate fluctuating emotions eliminates stress, especially during times of upheaval. It also helps our patients to improve their state of mind by understanding and, when needed, changing their emotional state.

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Supreme Wellness Recovery’s DBT program will help you learn how to advocate for yourself.

Interpersonal effectiveness provides the tools to get what you need through healthy, productive words and actions. The techniques we teach in this module help to minimize conflict. Patients learn to communicate more effectively, even with difficult people.

How Does Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Work?

DBT is a type of talk therapy. Our patients may meet one-on-one with Supreme Wellness Recovery therapists or in group sessions. Each approach offers advantages, and combining individual and group therapy is typically the most effective. During individual therapy, patients can focus on their personal issues and feel more comfortable sharing private thoughts or concerns. Participants can role-play and practice new skills with peers who face similar challenges in a group setting.

In both cases, dialectical behavioral therapy builds sober living skills that you can use after your formal treatment at Supreme Wellness Recovery is over.

DBT is considered effective in treating:

• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Bipolar disorder
• Eating disorders
• Generalized anxiety disorder
• Depression (major depressive disorder, chronic depression, and treatment-resistant major depression)
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Substance use disorder
• Non-suicidal self-injury
• Suicidal behavior
• Post-traumatic stress disorder

Each patient and each therapeutic setting requires an individual treatment plan. However, no matter what type of disorder you need help with, the basic characteristics of DBT—the six points and four skills—will still be the foundation of therapy at Supreme Wellness Recovery.

DBT at Supreme Wellness Recovery

Dialectical behavioral therapy is one of the evidence-based approaches we use at Supreme Wellness Recovery to help patients break the addiction cycle. By combining various techniques that help improve decision-making skills, patients who participate in treatment programs at Supreme Wellness Recovery build a strong foundation for lifelong recovery.