BorderlineCentral
Your One Stop Source For Information On
Borderline Personality Disorder

 
 
Home | About David Oliver | Success Stories | Success Profiles | How-To Courses | Articles/Stories | News | Contact | Site Map

Google
Web www.borderlinecentral.com

Does Your Loved One Have Borderline Personality Disorder?
Discover how to cope and deal with your loved one's Borderline Personality Disorder.
Click here for FREE information.
 

Do You Have Borderline Personality Disorder?
Discover how to cope and deal with your Borderline Personality Disorder disorder.
Click here for FREE information.
 

Child With Borderline Personality Disorder?
Learn How to REALLY Help and Support Your Child.
Click here for FREE information.
 

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
• Decreasing responses or behaviors (by either therapist or patient) that interfere with therapy
• Decreasing behaviors that interfere with/reduce quality of life
• Decreasing and dealing with post-traumatic stress responses
• Enhancing respect for self
• Acquisition of the behavioral skills taught in group
• Additional goals set by patient

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

FREE Borderline News,
Tips, Tricks and Secrets
Name:
E-mail:
Other:

If you are in a crisis please call:
1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Special Survey For Those
Who Are Caring For Someone With
Borderline Personality Disorder

3 Steps to Wealth, Success and True Happiness
Click here to discover the self help formula that can make money, help weight loss, heal relationships and much MUCH more.

More Love, Money, Confidence and Inner Peace
Click here for more information.

Improve Your Emotional Health
Reduce Your Stress Levels
Increase Your Brain Power

Click here for more information.

This Week's Borderline Personality Disorder News

The Cutting Truth of Borderline Personality Disorder
FYI Living
Cutting and other forms of self-mutilation may be hard for many people to understand. People who self-harm are more likely to have an underlying emotional problems, such as Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). According to a study by German researchers, people with BPD may engage in self-injury because they get a sense of emotional relief from physical pain. BPD is a complex set of... Read More

Click here for all Borderline News.

Visit Our Other Websites:
Bipolar Central
Health and Wealth Central
Mental Health World
ScizoInfo.com - coming soon

Home | About David Oliver | Success Stories | Success Profiles | How-To Courses | Articles/Stories | News | Contact | Site Map