DBT & BPD

Mindfulness

Dialectical Behavior Therapy draws from Zen Buddhism and the study of Mindfulness. Mindfulness draws the brain’s focus to the present moment in an attempt to slow down life and achieve inner peace. Many folks who come to DBT find themselves ruminating on the past or fretting about the future. Practicing Mindfulness skills can help achieve a balance.

Distress Tolerance

A crucial focus of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is tolerating distress. Many people who struggle with Borderline Personality Disorder and other mental illnesses often feel intense distress and lack the skills to tolerate it effectively. DBT teaches many skills that can help you get through difficult instances without resorting to ineffective coping mechanisms.

Emotion Regulation

Emotion Regulation is the Dialectical Behavioral Therapy module that teaches how emotions work. It provides skills to help manage emotions instead of being managed by them, reduce vulnerability to negative emotions, and build positive emotional experiences.

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy’s Interpersonal Effectiveness skills are designed to help you get what you need from your relationships while being respectful to yourself and others. Interpersonal relationships can be very challenging when you are also dealing with unstable emotions. As a consequence, many of us struggle to maintain healthy relationships. This module will help you attend to your relationships.

It's Time

DBT
Skills

Mindfulness is a core component of DBT. This set of skills is all about focusing on being present in the moment. Being stuck in your own thoughts can be very distressing. Mindfulness is a research-based strategy that gets you out of your head. It encourages you to become more aware of your surroundings and to live in the moment. The DBT module consists of a handful of skills that help you facilitate mindfulness practice as well as provides activities to practice. Like all DBT skills, mindfulness requires extensive practice for it to become second nature. Once practiced, however, it can reduce your stress levels and make you feel happier on a day-to-day basis.

Interpersonal Effectiveness skills are designed to help you get what you need from your relationships while being respectful to yourself and others. Interpersonal relationships can be very challenging when you are also dealing with unstable emotions. As a consequence, many of us struggle to maintain healthy relationships. This module will help you attend to your relationships.

Daily

Diary
Cards

Diary cards help track your emotions, urges, behaviors, and skill use. They help you see patterns. Learn how to use them and get an attached sample.

Adult DBT Diary Card

A Brief Overview

Borderline
Personality Disorder

01 / Basics

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental illness that can cause people to have trouble managing their emotions, which can lead to impulsivity. This can affect a person's self-esteem and relationships. BPD is also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD).

02 / Emotions

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a mental health condition in which a person has long-term patterns of unstable or explosive emotions. These inner experiences often result in impulsive actions, self-image issues, and chaotic relationships with other people.

03 / Symptoms

The cause of borderline personality disorder isn't well understood. Diagnosis is made based on symptoms. Symptoms include emotional instability, feelings of worthlessness, insecurity, impulsivity, black & white thinking, internal physical pain (emptiness) and impaired social relationships.

04 / Triggers

Separations, disagreements, and rejections—real or perceived—are the most common triggers for symptoms. A person with BPD is highly sensitive to abandonment and being alone, which brings about intense feelings of anger, fear, suicidal thoughts and self-harm, and very impulsive decisions.

Mindfulness

Just as we said earlier with mistaking feelings for facts, we tend to mistake judgments for facts.

Distress Tolerance

Emotional vulnurability is BIOLOGICAL: It's simply how some people are born.

Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation skills can be taught only in a context of emotional self-validation.

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Impulsivity is also BIOLOGICAL: regulating action is harder for some than for others.

— NOT SO LOUD!

Quiet

Recognizing quiet BPD is crucial for early intervention and support. The symptoms of quiet BPD, such as social withdrawal, conflict avoidance, dissociation, fear of abandonment, and suicidal thoughts, may often go unnoticed or mistaken for depression.