
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy
(DBT)
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy was developed and created by Marsha Linehan, a current clinical psychologist who was in and out of mental hospitals as a youth and thought about ending her life on numerous occasions.
Determined to create a life worth living, through painstaking trial and error, she discovered skills to help manage her emotions and find stability.
She coined the term "radical acceptance", which posed that normal pain+acceptance equaled a life worth living while normal pain with non-acceptance equaled unbearable pain.
The "dialectic" of DBT stems from on one hand accepting yourself exactly the way you are while conversely desiring and wanting change.
The skills in DBT including mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness are effective in managing a wide array of problems, ranging from anxiety and depression to relationship issues and anger and everything in between.