This feature by Tony DuBose, PsyD and Yevgeny Botanov, PhD is a reflection on the mental health profession. DuBose and Botanov take stock of the state of the field, both in terms of achievements as well as taking a look at how to raise the bar for the future.
Continue reading A call to action: The need to increase access to treatment
This feature by Dr. Nicole Kletzka is Part 2 of a two-part series about DBT in Forensic Settings. In part 1 (read it here), Dr. Kletzka set the stage by defining forensic psychology and beginning to understand how the model of DBT can be applied in forensic settings, and she focused on that application as it relates to the first of five functions of comprehensive DBT treatment: client motivation.
In this part two, we will examine how the remaining four functions of DBT are applied in forensic settings, including the functions of skill building and capability, generalization of skills, structuring the environment, and support/skill building for the treatment providers.
Continue reading DBT in Forensic Settings (Part 2)
This feature by Dr. Nicole Kletzka is Part 1 of a two-part series about DBT in Forensic Settings. In part 1, Dr. Kletzka sets the stage by defining forensic psychology and beginning to understand how the model of DBT can be applied in forensic settings. We then take a closer look at the how the five functions of comprehensive DBT treatment specifically relate in forensic settings, beginning in Part 1 with the first function of client motivation.
Continue reading DBT in Forensic Settings (Part 1)
“A fundamental goal of consultation to the therapist is to provide balance for each therapist so that he or she can stay within the dialectical frame of the therapy.”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder; Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D, 1993
This feature by Laurence Y. Katz, MD is Part 2 of a two-part series about therapists’ need to stay balanced when treating patients at risk for suicide and how the framework of DBT facilitates this balance. In part 1 (read it here), we examined the need for balance and the first two principles of how DBT fosters that balance. In this part, we will explore two more principles: therapist mindfulness practice and the application of radical acceptance.
Continue reading Staying Balanced When Treating Patients at Risk for Suicide (Part 2)
“A fundamental goal of consultation to the therapist is to provide balance for each therapist so that he or she can stay within the dialectical frame of the therapy.”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder; Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D, 1993
This feature by Laurence Y. Katz, MD is Part 1 of a two-part series about therapists’ need to stay balanced when treating patients at risk for suicide and how the framework of DBT facilitates this balance. In part 1, we start by examining the need for balance and the first two principles of how DBT fosters that balance.
Continue reading Staying Balanced When Treating Patients at Risk for Suicide (Part 1)
“The most important thing to remember about assumptions is that they are just that—assumptions, not facts.”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder; Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D, 1993
This feature by Vibh Forsythe Cox, PhD is our fourth and final part in this series of blogs about DBT assumptions. In DBT, in order to organize our behavior towards our clients, we adhere to certain assumptions. Through the first three parts of this blog series, we examined the assumptions that “Patients are doing the best they can,” that “Patients want to improve,” that “Patients need to do better, try harder, and be more motivated to change,” that “Patients may not have caused all of their own problems, but they have to solve them anyway,” that “the lives of suicidal, borderline individuals are unbearable as they are currently being lived,” and that “patients must learn new behaviors in all relevant contexts.”
In this fourth part, we will shine a light on the last two assumptions: that “Patients cannot fail in therapy” and that “Therapists treating borderline patients need support.”
Continue reading Reflecting on DBT Assumptions about Patients and Therapy (Part 4)
“The most important thing to remember about assumptions is that they are just that—assumptions, not facts.”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder; Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D, 1993
This feature by Vibh Forsythe Cox, PhD is Part 3 in a series of four blogs about DBT assumptions. In DBT, we adhere to several assumptions that help us organize our behavior towards our clients. In our first two parts we examined the assumptions that “Patients are doing the best they can,” that “Patients want to improve,” and that “Patients need to do better, try harder, and be more motivated to change.” In this third part, we take a closer look at three more assumptions about patients with Borderline Personality Disorder and therapy described in the treatment manual. First, that patients may not have caused all of their own problems, but they have to solve them anyway. Second, that the lives of suicidal, borderline individuals are unbearable as they are currently being lived. And finally, that patients must learn new behaviors in all relevant contexts.
Continue reading Reflecting on DBT Assumptions about Patients and Therapy (Part 3)
“The most important thing to remember about assumptions is that they are just that—assumptions, not facts.”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder; Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D, 1993
This feature by Vibh Forsythe Cox, PhD is Part 2 in a series of four blogs about DBT assumptions. In DBT, we adhere to several assumptions that help us organize our behavior towards our clients. In this second part, we take a closer look at two of the assumptions about patients with Borderline Personality Disorder and therapy described in the treatment manual: that patients want to improve and that patients need to do better, try harder, and be more motivated to change.
Continue reading Reflecting on DBT Assumptions about Patients and Therapy (Part 2)
“The most important thing to remember about assumptions is that they are just that—assumptions, not facts.”
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder; Marsha M. Linehan, Ph.D, 1993
This feature by Vibh Forsythe Cox, PhD is Part 1 of 4 in a series about assumptions about patients with Borderline Personality Disorder and therapy described in the treatment manual. In DBT, we adhere to several assumptions that help us organize our behavior towards our clients. The first is the assumption that “Patients are doing the best they can.”
Continue reading Reflecting on DBT Assumptions about Patients and Therapy (Part 1)
We sat down with Behavioral Tech Trainer Dr. Sara Schmidt to learn all about the role that emotion regulation plays in DBT. In Part 1 of this interview, Sara took a deep dive into the idea of emotion regulation and what it means to experience emotion dysregulation, as well as a framework therapists can use to help their clients assess their emotions.
In part 2, we take a closer look at how we support clients in understanding those emotions and the specific DBT skills to give clients to help them regulate emotions and change problematic behaviors.
Continue reading The Role of Emotion Regulation in DBT (Part 2)