Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
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For those who struggle with substance abuse, drug or alcohol addiction, or behavioural addictions, changing behaviours that are associated with these challenges is essential. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is a therapeutic modality that provides a structured approach to help individuals be more aware of their thoughts, feelings, and actions, including how they are connected to each other. As a therapy, DBT helps clients accept their negative thoughts and feelings and helps them regulate emotions. Therefore, through DBT at PCP – The Perry Clayman Project, clients learn how to function through painful times without reaching for addictive behaviours to solve the challenges that they face.
What Does Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Look Like?
Every individual experiences a large array of emotions in their lives. However, many individuals with varying types of addiction do not know how to cope with the strong or intense emotions they experience. These emotions vary. However, they may include anger, sadness, grief, or frustration.
DBT addresses this challenge and offers a chance for clients to learn how to regulate and be with their emotions when they arise in their lives. It does so through a comprehensive programme that includes individual therapy, group therapy, and working with a therapeutic team. As such, DBT is a programme for treatment rather than a singular session with a practitioner in isolation. At PCP – The Perry Clayman Project, clients are supported by the entire care team throughout their time in treatment. This often incorporates DBT as a way to help them learn to monitor and regulate their emotions in treatment.
Components of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
The aim of DBT is to help clients by improving and generalising capabilities, increasing motivation, reducing behaviours that are dysfunctions, and structuring their environment. Improving and generalising skills focuses on a variety of life skills. These skills help clients to manage difficult times in their lives. However, they also help a client connect with others and build support in their lives. In order to learn these skills, clients participate in group skills sessions that help them both build and enhance skills.
Having the motivation to make changes helps clients to stay on track. However, motivation can be elusive. Through individual therapy, clients work to clarify their deep motivation. This process looks different for each person. However, it includes being more aware of their own values. As they improve their awareness, they begin to see why it is important for them to take the steps to heal from addiction.
Alongside motivation, DBT also focuses on clients making changes in their lives and building structure that supports these changes. Certain behaviours are targeted that play a significant role in their challenges with addiction. Clients practice awareness and get feedback on their changes while receiving support in making these shifts. This includes changes in structure. In DBT, the client partakes in a highly structured environment. They learn the value of structure and how they can create structure in their own life.
Skills Learned in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy
DBT teaches many skills. These include awareness, distress tolerance, and emotional regulation. Through learning these skills, clients are able to address challenging situations in their lives. They are also capable of truly making changes in their behaviours and making adjustments along the road of recovery.
Awareness
In DBT, clients are guided through the process of improving awareness. They are asked questions in group and individual sessions that help improve their awareness. However, they are also asked to complete homework that helps them as well. This combination of structure helps improve their understanding and awareness of themselves.
Awareness is a skill that helps clients recover from addiction. It is only when a client is aware of their own feelings, challenges, and issues that they can address them effectively. Treatment for addiction is not the end of the road. When clients improve their awareness, they can address problems that occur along the way and heal from the root causes that have played a role in their development of addiction.
Distress Tolerance
Negative emotions are a part of the human experience. For many individuals with low tolerance for distress and negative emotions, these parts of being a human are very difficult. Commonly, this combination results in addiction and addictive behaviours that act as an escape from these experiences. Therefore, improving distress tolerance and emotional resilience helps clients recover.
Distress tolerance is a focus of DBT. While many believe it is an innate quality, distress tolerance is a skill. In DBT, clients learn to be more aware of their distress. They then learn to be with their negative emotions, accept them, and move forward after the experience.
Emotional Regulation
Regulating emotions helps individuals to build better relationships, improve their well-being, and function well in daily life. However, a lack of emotional regulation is associated with addiction and many mental health challenges. Therefore, as clients improve emotional regulation, they set themselves up for success in their recovery.
In DBT, clients learn emotional regulation. They learn to accept their emotions, label, and make choices that improve their emotional well-being. This level of emotional regulation is challenging and, therefore, takes time for clients to build as they go through DBT.
Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) at PCP – The Perry Clayman Project helps clients improve their awareness, regulate emotions, and build better relationships, all of which are vital in their recovery from addiction. If you are interested in learning more about our treatment options for addiction, call us today at 08000 380 480.