Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

DBT is a modified form of CBT. It combines standard cognitive-behavioural techniques for emotion regulation and reality-testing with concepts of distress tolerance, acceptance and mindful awareness, many of them drawn from meditative practice.

The word dialectical points to holding two things at once: you are doing the best you can, and you can learn to do things differently.

At Kelly Mental Health, DBT is offered combined with CBT and other therapy approaches during individual sessions, rather than as a separate group program. Your clinician brings in the skills that fit what you are working on.

• Mindfulness: noticing what is happening without being swept away by it
• Distress tolerance: getting through a crisis moment without making it worse
• Emotion regulation: understanding emotions and turning down their intensity
• Interpersonal effectiveness: asking for what you need and holding boundaries

If your emotions feel bigger or faster than you can manage, or you find yourself reacting in ways you regret later, DBT skills can give you more room between the feeling and the response.