Do you feel your mind is being pulled in a hundred different directions at once? Do you have a hard time handling some of your emotions, and does this cause any problems in your relationships?

Dialectical behavior modification offers individuals comprehensive skills to manage painful memories and emotions and decrease conflicts in their relationships. This modality focuses on 4 specific areas of therapeutic skills. These are:

• Mindfulness – Helps individuals be present in the current moment.
• Distress tolerance – Most people try and keep themselves safe from all negative emotions. Distress tolerance is geared toward increasing a person’s tolerance to negative emotion.
• Emotion regulation – Offers strategies to manage intense emotions that are the root cause of problems in a person’s life.
• Interpersonal effectiveness – These techniques allow an individual to communicate with others in a confident, assertive way that maintains self-respect and strengthens relationships.

How Does it Work Exactly?

Many of us live our daily lives with a constant stream of uncontrollable negative emotions right under our awareness. These emotions affect how we feel about ourselves and how we interact with other people, including friends, romantic partners and family members.

Dialectical Behavior Modification essentially works with individuals to help them find ways to manage their negative emotions so they can feel balanced, in control, and able to interact respectfully and successfully. The message at the heart of dialectical behavior modification is acceptance and change.

When is Dialectical Behavioral Modification Used and What Can You Expect?

While dialectical behavioral modification was initially developed to treat those with borderline personality disorder, research has since shown that dialectical behavior modification can successfully treat people with depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, eating disorders, and substance abuse.

dialectical behavioral modification treatment usually consists of a combination of dialectical behavioral modification skills groups and individual therapy sessions. The individual therapy sessions allow you to have one-on-one contact with a trained therapist who will help you apply dialectical behavioral modification skills to your daily life, address any obstacle that may arise and keep you motivated! The skills group interactions will help you practice skills with others and offer mutual support.

Finding a Dialectical Behavioral Modification Therapist

If you are interested in exploring dialectical behavioral modification, you should look for a therapist with specialized training and experience in dialectical behavioral modification strategies. The Linehan Board of Certification is a non-profit organization that has developed certification standards for dialectical behavioral modification clinicians. It’s also important that you look for someone you feel comfortable with.

If you or someone you know may benefit from dialectical behavioral modification, please get in touch with me. I would be happy to discuss how I may be able to help.