All About Dialectical Behavior Therapy In NYC

By Olive Pate


There are numerous mental health disorders that affect people of all ages. One of them is borderline personality disorder characterized by suicidal feelings, difficulty forming stable relationships, impulsiveness, loneliness and depression. One of the industrys commonly used method for treating this disorder is dialectical behavior therapy in NYC. Apart from BPO, the therapy is used to treat depression, substance abuse and anger incidences.

There are four components that form dialectical behaviour treatment. They include, individual treatment, skills training, phone coaching and consultation teams. In training groups, treatment comprises of groups with a team leader and students. Here clients learn how to enhance the behavioural skills with the other members of the group. The leader gives the students homework to practice their skills further and hold weekly meetings that may take up to 24 weeks.

Individual therapy is focused on a single client and aims at motivating them to use skills learnt to solve specific challenges and events in their lives. This type of therapy takes place once a week and runs concurrently with the other components of the treatment program. The third component, phone coaching focuses on teaching clients skills to cope with situations at the moment through a telephone call.

The last component of the treatment program is the therapist consultation team. These teams are basically for the therapist and not the client although their purpose is to benefit the latter. They help treatment providers to gain competency and focus while treating their patients. They may hold meetings once a week. They comprise of group leaders and individual therapist who share similar responsibility and commitment to their clients.

Mindfulness and Distress tolerance are acceptance oriented skills that aim to teach clients how to acknowledge what they need to accept in order to reach their goals. Emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness skills are change-oriented skills that enable clients to know what they need to change in order to reach their goals. The combination of the change-oriented, and acceptance oriented skills comprise the integration of opposites that translate to dialectical.

Acceptance and change-oriented skills comprise the integration of opposite upon which the dialectic treatment method is based. The method uses a four hierarchy model for treating patients. The first to be addressed is life threatening behaviour such as non-suicidal self-injury or suicidal thoughts. Before any other problem can be addressed the therapist must formulate ways of protecting the clients life.

The next step is therapy interfering behaviour treatment. A client must be willing to get help before they can be helped. Therefore behaviour that interfere with treatment such as not collaborating or being late should be addressed at this stage. Next is the quality of life behaviours that interrupt the clients quality of life.

Dialectic therapy is effective in relieving symptoms associated with the borderline personality disorder such as non-suicidal self-injury and suicidal behaviour. It is also widely used in patients with cases of anger, depression and substance abuse. It aims to improve social and global functioning as well as cultivating acceptance and change-oriented skills. In the end, after gaining these vital skills, they now are able to live an almost normal life.




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