4 Important Benefits of Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Mental health conditions require mental flexibility for effective treatment. It’s not enough to tell yourself to get over symptoms of depression or anxiety, or problems like eating disorders or substance abuse. Instead, you need to address the root of these issues to find real healing and stability.

At Nugent Family Counseling Center of San Jose, Santa Clara, and Aliso Viejo, California, and Reno, Nevada, we utilize the full range of therapeutic tools to improve your mental health. For many patients, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) provides the best support for starting and maintaining positive cycles of mental health improvement.

Here are just some of the reasons why your provider at Nugent Family Counseling Center might recommend that you undergo DBT counseling treatment.

1. Better understand your emotions and thoughts

A type of cognitive behavioral therapy, DBT focuses on “dialectics,” using dialogue to work through past traumas and present symptoms. With DBT treatment, you become aware of the complex emotions and structures of thought that influence your behavior and choices.

When you fully understand your feelings and mental assumptions, you’re empowered to make healthy choices. DBT improves your mindfulness, so you can stay rooted in the present and give your current situation, and other people around you, your full and calm attention.

2. Improve your relationships with yourself and others

DBT approaches help patients build better self-esteem, as well as better relationships with others. DBT treatment encourages you to understand and accept yourself as a complex person. It’s important to recognize your strength and capability to improve your mental health.

When you can accept yourself, and take responsibility for your actions, you can stop lashing out at others. How could your relationships benefit from breaking out of good/bad, friend/foe binary thinking, and increased patience, tolerance, and understanding?

3. Resolve “all-or-nothing” thinking

DBT includes both acceptance of yourself as you are, and an openness to potential positive change. That means letting go of “all-or-nothing” thinking.

Instead of reacting to painful, intensely negative thoughts and feelings in the moment, with DBT, you can learn to sit with discomfort and take control of your feelings by starting to regulate them.

4. Gain strategies to maintain positive thoughts and behavior

DBT enhances your interpersonal effectiveness, communication skills, and ability to handle distress and conflict. You develop a full toolkit of strategies to rely on in difficult situations and day-to-day life.

Many different types of mental health conditions improve with DBT treatment. Whether you’re living with depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, and eating disorders, DBT can help.

The team at Nugent Family Counseling Center often recommend DBT along with other approaches as part of integrative mental health treatment plans. DBT pairs well with other traditional and alternative therapies, including neurofeedback treatment to rewire mentally unhealthy thought patterns and improve mood regulation.

Learn more about the benefits of DBT by getting in touch with the mental health experts at Nugent Family Counseling Center today. Schedule your initial consultation appointment with a member of our team by calling now, or request an appointment online.