Many have the image that someone who goes to a psychologist is going to do Freudian psychotherapy. The person lies down on the couch and the psychologist from behind, without the patient seeing him, simply writes down and reflects on some of the ideas that the patient is throwing up. This type of therapy is still performed today, but it is not the only one. Fortunately, psychology is a science that has come a long way in the last 50 years and has incorporated other evidence-based techniques and therapies.
Some of these new methodologies emerged targeting specific disorders and were later proven effective. also in other symptoms, so that the use of certain therapies, initially specific, is extended. This somewhat reflects what happened with dialectical behavior therapy. If you want to know more about it, in this Psychology-Online article we will talk about the dialectical behavior therapy: what it is, theory, what it is for and techniques.
Dialectical behavior therapy was proposed by Marsha M. Linehan in 1993. The objective of the therapy is to address the main symptoms manifested by patients with borderline personality disorder that we will see below:
- Difficulty regulating emotional response.
- Tendency to impulsiveness.
- feelings and fear of abandonment.
- Interpersonal difficulty reflected in relational instability.
- Unstable identity.
- Self-destructive behaviors such as self-harm.
- Parasuicidal behaviors.
- autolytic attempts.
- Toxic consumption.
In this sense, dialectical behavior therapy seeks the patient to take responsibility for their emotions and allow yourself to experience them without avoiding them in order to achieve a life worth living.
This type of therapeutic process emphasizes self regulation affective emotion and in the management and control of emotions, as well as in cognitive and behavioral aspects. The duration of this therapy is at least 1 or 2 years.
dialectical behavior therapy comes from the cognitive behavioral paradigm and integrates aspects of third generation therapy such as the following:
- The importance of context.
- Active participation.
- The relationship and therapeutic alliance.
- The importance of the function of behavior.
- Concepts of acceptance, emotional validation and commitment to change.
In the same way as in acceptance and commitment therapy, Linehan's dialectical behavior therapy introduces the normalization of discomfort as a natural aspect of human life. The objective is return to the patient the responsibility of integrating their experiences like another event.
According to Vallejo (2011), [1]third-generation therapies like this return responsibility to the patient, since they put the weight of the decision on her experience and it falls on him to make decisions. This choice generates a commitment to change so that if the patient manages to synthesize and integrate the different polarities of his experience, he will be able to live fully and comfortably.
Dialectical behavior therapy is widely used in borderline personality disorder outpatients. In fact, it is the most applied treatment for this mental illness. Even though he Borderline personality disorder It is the disorder par excellence with which to apply dialectical behavior therapy, it has also shown to be effective with patients who present the following symptoms.
- High levels of impulsivity.
- Hopelessness.
- autolytic ideation
- Suicide attempts.
- Recurring self-harm.
- Adolescent population with high levels of impulsivity.
- Juvenile delinquents.
- Eating disorder, especially with bulimia.
- Patients with addictions.
- Dual pathology.
- Posttraumatic stress.
The intervention of dialectical behavioral therapy is carried out through four components that are individualized psychotherapy, group training in social skills, urgent telephone assistance in crisis and support calls and feedback and supervision periodic.
individualized psychotherapy
Some of the strategies and techniques used in the individualized psychotherapy of dialectical behavior therapy are:
- dialectical strategies that encourage acceptance and change with specific strategies such as paradoxes, devil's advocate, storytelling and metaphors, magnifying the patient's verbalizations, activation of the wise mind that integrates the emotional and the rational, change from the negative to the positive and evaluation dialectics.
- core strategies for the validation of the past and the present
- styling strategies, combining reciprocal and irreverent communication, as opposed to validation.
- control strategies to act on the patient's environment and how he relates to it.
Group training in social skills
The strategies for training social skills used in dialectical behavior therapy are:
- mindfulness.
- Exposure and detection of thoughts and feelings of emptiness and ignorance of the self.
- role-playing.
- Modeling and modeling.
- Instructions and self-instructions.
- Validation of experience and suffering.
- Acceptance.
- Tolerance of emotions.
Therapist strategies in his attitude
Some of the strategies that therapists should apply regarding the attitude they show when applying dialectical behavior therapy are:
- Initial directivity.
- Coordination between professionals and teamwork in the different modules.
- Close, understanding attitude that generates security, confidence and a solid therapeutic relationship.
- Non-evaluative attitude of acceptance and empathic validation.
In this sense, if you want to know what does it take to be a good psychologist, Do not miss this article.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Dialectical behavior therapy: what it is, theory, what it is for and techniques
