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Does Your Loved One Have Borderline Personality
Disorder?
Do You Have Borderline Personality Disorder?
Child With Borderline Personality Disorder? |
What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy?
Marsha Linehan, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, pioneered a specialized form of psychotherapy called Dialectical Behavior Therapy, based on the idea that the psychosocial treatment of those people with Borderline Personality Disorder was as important in controlling the disorder as traditional psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy (treatment with medication) were. With this belief, Linehan set up a hierarchical structure of treatment goals. The highest goal was to reduce parasuicidal (self-injuring) and life-threatening behaviors. The next goal was to reduce behaviors that interfered with the therapy/treatment process, and the last goal was to reduce behaviors that decreased the client's quality of life. In 1991, Linehan published results of her study which showed remarkable success at achieving these goals. Basically, Dialectical Behavior Therapy maintains that some people, due to invalidating environments during childhood (developmental years) as well as biological factors as yet unknown, will react abnormally to emotional stimulation. The level of arousal in these people will go up much more quickly, will peak at a higher level, and will take more time to return to baseline. This explains why people with Borderline Personality Disorder are known for crisis-strewn lives and rapidly shifting emotions. Because of their past invalidation, they do not have any methods for coping with these intense, sudden surges of emotion. Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a method for teaching these people the skills to help them with this task. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy consists, first of all, with once-weekly psychotherapy sessions in which a particular problematic behavior or event from the past week is explored in detail, beginning with the chain of events leading up to it, going through alternative solutions that might have been used, and examining what kept the client from using more adaptive solutions to the problem. Both between and during sessions, the therapist actively teaches and reinforces adaptive behaviors, especially as they occur within the therapeutic relationship…the emphasis is on teaching patients how to manage emotional trauma rather than reducing or taking them out of crises…Telephone contact with the individual therapist between sessions is part of Dialectical Behavior Therapy procedures. (Linehan, 1991) Dialectical Behavior Therapy targets behaviors in a descending hierarchy as follows: • Decreasing high-risk suicidal behaviors Dialectical Behavior Therapy also consists of weekly 2.5-hour group therapy sessions in which interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance/reality acceptance skills, emotion regulation, and mindfulness skills are taught. Group therapists are not available over the phone between sessions; instead, they refer patients in crisis to their individual therapist. About the Author David Oliver is the founder of BorderlineCentral.com a one stop source of information on how to cope and deal with borderline personality disorder. Back to Article List |
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