Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) assumes we are doing the best we can with the skills and behaviors we know and that we generally want to do better. DBT is based in the bio-social theory, which takes both our genetics and environment into account. Some of us are just born more emotionally sensitive than others. We may feel emotions more intensely, and may have a hard time restraining impulses. Also, we may have experienced an invalidating social environment, where we were constantly being told our feelings were wrong or we should not have felt a certain way — consequently teaching us to ignore or not trust our own emotions. In addition, people in our life may have reinforced our unmanageable behaviors and emotions. An example: If we learn people only respond when anger is at a level 10, then it makes sense for us to quickly go to level 10 when expressing our anger. DBT acknowledges we may not have caused all our problems but we can solve them anyway.
