DBT for Teens: What is it and How does it Work?
What Is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based type of psychotherapy utilized with children, teens, and adults. DBT for teens can effectively treat a range of mental health concerns including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. It focuses on helping teens cope with and regulate their emotions and change unhelpful behaviors, through proven coping skills such as mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Mindfulness skills in DBT for teens involve learning to be more aware of, and nonjudgmental towards, emotions. This includes practicing observing and describing experiences in a non-judgmental way. For example, if you are feeling anxious, you might say, “I am feeling anxious right now” without telling yourself that it is bad or trying to push the anxiety away.
Learning How to Work with – Rather than Against – Your Emotions
It is normal to feel emotionally overwhelmed and reactive at times. Adolescence generally is a stage in life when emotions can feel more intense as you are trying to figure out who you are and what is important to you. Distress tolerance skills are aimed at learning to be less emotionally reactive when feeling intense or unpleasant emotions.
The term radical acceptance is used in DBT to describe recognizing and accepting the present moment for what it is, particularly aspects of a situation that are out of your control. When you learn to accept and not fight against what you cannot control, even if you don’t like it, you tend to feel less distress.
Emotional regulation skills involve managing and coping with emotions. Often intense emotions are exacerbated by actions. For example, yelling when you’re angry will likely cause you to feel more anger. So, one way to manage intense emotions is to focus on helpful behaviors. Based on the above example, this may look like practicing talking in an even and quieter tone of voice when angry, to help regulate your anger.
Recognizing the Power of Opposite Action
In DBT, acting in a helpful way may include using the skill of Opposite Action – i.e. doing the opposite of what your emotional urge wants you to do. For example, if you have the emotional urge to yell, you would practice talking in a quiet tone of voice. Or, if you have the emotional urge to isolate when feeling sad, you would practice the opposite action of reaching out to a friend.
Interpersonal effectiveness focuses on improving relationship skills. For example, DBT for teens includes learning how to clearly express your needs and desires, enhance positive and helpful interactions with others, and act in a values-based way that supports what is meaningful and important to you vs. acting in a way to get approval from others.
DBT for teens is a clear, practical, evidence-based approach aimed at building effective coping skills. In addition to the specific coping skills mentioned above, DBT for teens enhances self-awareness and problem-solving skills and may be particularly helpful for teens who experience intense emotions, consistent unhelpful behaviors, and challenging relationships.
Skill-Based Groups for Middle & High School Adolescents at CBTDenver
This YouTube video by Clinical Psychologist Esme Shaller at the University of California, San Francisco provides an overview of DBT for teens. The video explains how skill-based groups are a core component of DBT for teens.
Starting on August 28, 2024, CBT Denver will be offering DBT groups for middle school and high school adolescents facilitated by Elise Brown, LPC.
The two groups will meet on Wednesday evenings and run through mid-December 2024. To learn more about the groups and to register, please contact Elise at elise.brown@cbtdenver.com
To learn more about DBT for teens and adults overall, please contact us at CBT Denver.