When you need help for addiction, you need quality time with a licensed and expert therapist for a healthy recovery. If you’re already receiving an outpatient addiction treatment level of care, your counselor may use special methods that make you think about your life and behaviors differently. Your therapist will challenge you in many ways, which may include methods like Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).

About Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Man Undergoing Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Various behavioral health professionals have used Dialectical Behavior Therapy since the 1980s. A branch off of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), DBT challenges clients to connect their thoughts and beliefs that lead to bad behaviors. Unlike CBT, therapists using DBT don’t push for big changes in their clients’ lives. It is important that clients feel understood and validated. DBT-oriented therapists help clients learn how to accept oneself, one’s emotions and thoughts, the world, and others.  

Meditation and mindfulness are cornerstones of DBT. Clients see how their moods change when meditating. They learn to accept their mood changes and let feelings go. This teaches clients to overcome stress and other emotions instead of letting them take over thoughts, actions, and behaviors.

With that being said, Dialectical Behavior Therapy doesn’t stop with helping people control their reactions. It also helps them improve their social lives by learning about themselves and how to read the emotions of others.

Details of DBT

DBT takes a lot of time. In an outpatient setting, clients using this method engage with a therapist for private sessions regularly, many seeing theirs at least a few times per week. They participate in frequent group sessions, keep a daily journal, complete homework assignments, and other therapist-recommended processes.

Because DBT requires so much commitment, it works best in a focused setting like residential treatment or intensive outpatient. While the process may carve time away from family, school, work, and other duties, the payoff of Dialectical Behavior Therapy is huge.

Even though behavioral health professionals initially used DBT to help people with personality disorders, it works very well for those struggling with addiction, disordered eating, and depression. It helps clients fight thoughts of suicide, drug addiction, eating disorders, and other conditions. Some clients must go to DBT sessions for weeks to see improvement, others may need months for real change.

Studies relate DBT to major life improvement. This form of addiction treatment therapy leads to lower chances of alcohol and other drug relapse and has even proven to develop social skills.

Other benefits include:

  • Mindfulness training that helps you become more aware and engaged in the present
  • Distress tolerance that makes it easier to accept your life challenges instead of running from them
  • Interpersonal effectiveness for developing healthy communication and conflict solving skills for happier, more fulfilling relationships
  • Emotional regulation that makes it easier to accept feelings and balance emotions

Addiction Recovery Treatment with DBT

Santé Center for Healing’s DBT is one of the many tools used for your best drug or alcohol addiction recovery. 

Family owned and operated, Santé Center for Healing focuses on long-term recovery, providing hope, health, and healing with the cornerstone of integrity. In an intimate and serene environment, we combine 12 step principles with evidence-based therapy methods like dialectical behavioral therapy to give individuals the best chance of long-term healing and recovery.

At Santé, no two days of treatment are the same. Individuals control their own progress and how they move through our levels of addiction treatment services. By committing yourself to your recovery, you can follow your own path to a better future.

If you’re ready for your best chance of long-term recovery, call Santé Center for Healing now at 866.238.3154.