If you’re juggling intense emotions, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) may help you manage them. At Rubicon Mental Health Center, we provide behavioral healthcare services, including DBT, near you in Watchung, New Jersey. Serving individuals from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York, our outpatient programs include various therapies and modalities to provide whole-person care for a wide range of mental health disorders. Learn more about DBT, what it’s used to treat, and what you can expect in a session.

Key Takeaways

• Dialectical behavior therapy is a form of psychotherapy that helps to improve emotional regulation in individuals with mental health disorders.
• The four modules of dialectical behavior therapy include mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
• DBT can be used to treat borderline personality disorder, depression, substance use disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, eating disorders, and more.
• A DBT session often includes mindfulness exercises, a review of the patient’s diary card, and techniques such as behavioral chain analysis or skill rehearsal.
• Rubicon Mental Health Center provides dialectical behavior therapy for patients from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York.

What Is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?

Dialectical behavior therapy is an evidence-based type of psychotherapy that derives from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). It was created to help improve emotional regulation in individuals with certain mental health disorders, including borderline personality disorder (BPD) and depression. Through various techniques, DBT helps patients develop practical coping skills they can use to manage intense emotions and prevent self-destructive behaviors.

The term “dialectical” in DBT refers to the concept of balancing two seemingly contradictory ideas: acceptance and change. Patients work to accept themselves and their emotions without judgment while simultaneously trying to positively change their responses to challenging emotions.

DBT is well-suited for patients who are dealing with self-destructive behaviors, emotional dysregulation, and interpersonal challenges. Dialectical behavior therapy is provided by various mental health professionals, including psychologists, psychiatrists, licensed professional counselors (LPCs), and more.

What Are the Four DBT Skill Modules?

Dialectical behavior therapy is based on the foundation of four skill modules. These modules work together to help patients balance acceptance of their current situation with the ability to create meaningful change. They include:

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is at the core of DBT. It means being fully present in the moment, rather than worrying about the past or future. By working on mindfulness, patients can observe their thoughts and feelings from a non-judgmental perspective. This helps them act with intention instead of acting impulsively. Mindfulness techniques include focusing solely on the task at hand without any distractions and viewing situations as facts rather than attaching emotions to them.

Distress Tolerance

Distress tolerance refers to the process of surviving and managing challenging situations and painful emotions without making them worse. Rather than teaching patients to immediately resolve their problems, distress tolerance focuses on accepting and tolerating immediate distress without using destructive or impulsive behaviors. To do so, techniques like self-soothing and distractions are used.

Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation involves identifying, naming, and understanding intense emotions and responses to them. It helps the patient recognize their triggers and learn how to manage them, reducing emotional vulnerability and increasing their resilience. This includes tools such as the STOP skill, which is created for crisis situations. It involves:

• Stop (S)
• Take a step back (T)
• Observe your thoughts and feelings (O)
• Proceed mindfully (P)

These tools use actionable, step-by-step instructions to help patients navigate heightened emotions.

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Interpersonal effectiveness is a technique that helps patients manage their interactions with others. It uses various frameworks, including objective effectiveness, relationship effectiveness, and self-respect effectiveness, to help patients:

• Set healthy boundaries
• Communicate assertively
• Manage conflict
• Maintain self-respect in relationships

By using these four modules, DBT helps patients manage their emotions in a more positive way, improving their overall mental health and quality of life.

What Conditions Does DBT Treat?

Dialectical behavior therapy was originally designed to treat individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD), helping them handle suicidal thoughts, self-harming behaviors, and extreme mood swings. However, it has been adapted to treat many other mental health disorders, including:

• Depression: DBT helps patients with depression, especially depression associated with severe mood swings, emotional volatility, or trauma, learn how to accept their emotions while changing their behaviors.
• Mood dysregulation or impulse control issues: DBT helps patients with mood dysregulation or impulse control issues recognize emotional triggers, slow down their nervous system, and replace impulsive reactions with deliberate actions.
• Self-harm: Through techniques such as distress tolerance and emotion regulation, DBT helps patients manage self-harm triggers and develop better coping mechanisms.
• Substance use disorder (SUD) with emotion dysregulation: Patients with substance abuse issues can benefit from DBT, helping them address addiction triggers and manage cravings.
• Eating disorders: DBT is particularly helpful for patients with binge eating disorder or bulimia nervosa, as it helps them confront triggers without resorting to food-related behaviors.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): DBT can help patients with PTSD manage trauma-related emotions and related avoidance behaviors.

At Rubicon Mental Health Center, we provide DBT for patients with these conditions to help them increase present-moment awareness and enhance resilience against strong emotions.

What Is a DBT Session Like?

If you’re considering DBT treatment, you’re likely wondering what to expect in a session. Individual DBT sessions run for 45 to 60 minutes and typically continue anywhere from six months to a year. They use a tool called a diary card, which is a way of tracking emotions, target behaviors, urges, and skills the patient has experienced or used.

Each DBT session is highly structured and collaborative. With help from the patient’s diary card, the therapist will determine what to focus on for the session. A typical session will include:

• Check-in and mindfulness exercise
• Diary card review and agenda setting
• Behavioral chain analysis, which involves working step-by-step through a specific trigger, determining what causes the behavior, and identifying where coping skills could have been used
• Skill rehearsal, which consists of practicing new skills or role-playing situations where you put the skills to work

Homework, such as filling out the diary card, may be assigned to help patients track their progress and practice newly learned skills during the week. Patients undergoing comprehensive DBT often attend both individual therapy sessions and a weekly DBT skills training group. The group sessions are like a class where different DBT modules are discussed and practiced.

DBT in Outpatient and Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) Settings

At Rubicon Mental Health Center, we specialize in outpatient mental health care. Our mission is to create a safe, compassionate, and supportive environment where patients can develop the resilience they need to thrive. To achieve this mission, we have three main levels of care:

• Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP): Patients attend sessions five days per week for six hours a day.
• Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP): Patients attend sessions for a minimum of three days per week, but they may attend for up to five days. Sessions run for around three hours a day and typically last for 10 to 12 weeks.
• Outpatient Program: Patients attend sessions two to three days a week for one hour a day.

DBT is mainly provided in our Outpatient and IOP programs, but it can also be integrated into treatment plans for PHP patients. While DBT is a part of many treatment plans, it is also often combined with other therapies or services, such as CBT, holistic therapy, family or group counseling, and more.

Get Started with DBT Near You in NJ, PA, & NY

Patients or loved ones with strong emotions and mental health conditions can get help through dialectical behavior therapy at Rubicon Mental Health Center. We take a whole-person, evidence-based approach to mental health care, treating each person with individualized treatment plans that address their physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Our team is made up of master’s-level mental health professionals, including clinicians, therapists, and psychiatric advanced practice nurses (APNs). We pride ourselves on meeting patients where they are. We accept and support individuals who may not meet typical criteria, while still providing structured, comprehensive care that adapts as their needs evolve.

At Rubicon Mental Health Center, wellness is just a phone call away. We’re here for patients in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Contact us online or call (908)-678-1870 today to learn more about DBT or to request an appointment near you in NJ.