Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

CARESPACE is less than 10-minutes away

Good news – if you’re looking for Dialectical Behavioural Therapy near you and are in the Kitchener Waterloo area, there’s a CARESPACE multidisciplinary clinic less than 10-minutes away (book online below). And even better, our evidence-based team is driven to get the results you want so you can be your best.

What is Dialectical Behaviour Therapy?

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a form of psychotherapy. It combines cognitive-behavioural techniques with mindfulness and acceptance strategies and focuses on teaching people new skills to help them manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviours as well as improving their interpersonal relationships. DBT also uses validation techniques to help people more effectively regulate and validate their own, and other people’s experiences. This practice helps those suffering from a variety of mental health disorders, including borderline personality disorder (BPD), depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety disorders. DBT aims to provide effective coping mechanisms for those who struggle managing intense emotions or conflicts without causing disruption in everyday life.

How does Dialectical Behaviour Therapy work?

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based therapeutic approach designed to help clients reduce their discomfort and improve their quality of life by altering maladaptive behaviours, emotions, and thoughts. It uses a combination of cognitive-behavioural techniques and mindfulness skills to identify and change the behaviours that create difficulties in people’s lives. The goal is to help individuals achieve a balance between acceptance and change, learning how to regulate emotions, tolerate distress, and improve interpersonal relationships. DBT has been shown to effectively treat a range of issues including addiction, PTSD, anxiety, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, suicide risk management and more. With as few as one or two sessions per week for fourteen weeks, DBT helps clients gain control of their lives to live in more tolerable conditions than before.

What are the benefits of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy?

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapeutic technique that helps people to change their behavior, thoughts and feelings. It was originally developed to treat individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder, however it has shown to be an effective treatment for a variety of mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and substance abuse. This form of therapy is based around the notion that when behaviors, emotions and thoughts all point in the same direction, positive life outcomes become possible. One of the key benefits of DBT is that it provides strategies for regulating emotions, as well as teaching interpersonal skills. DBT also encourages individuals to take more responsibility for their choices rather than passing blame onto others or on their environment. Through this process, individuals are able to achieve meaningful long-term changes in their lives.

Are the outcomes of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy permanent?

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy that combines the two approaches to help people deal with challenging emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. One of the benefits of DBT is that it provides skills that can be used in various situations. As such, many assume that these outcomes are permanent. Yet despite its apparent efficacy, DBT does not work as a one-time fix for some individuals but rather ongoing practice helps maintain successes and skills learned in previous sessions. Therefore, whether or not the outcomes of DBT are permanent depends on the individual’s commitment to using the tools taught to them over time and within different contexts.

Who can benefit from Dialectical Behaviour Therapy?

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) has proven valuable to people dealing with complex issues such as borderline personality disorder, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Additionally, DBT can be tremendously helpful to those struggling with chronic conditions or working through crises due to environmental or psychological traumas. Research has also found that those who commit to a long-term engagement with the program find greater relief from persistent symptoms than those who participate in more transient forms of treatment. In other words, DBT helps people address immediate issues while providing access to tools for sustained emotional regulation and mental well being.