What is a Therapeutic Approach Anyway? Understanding DBT, part 2

There are three main components that make up Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). These components are mindfulness, emotional regulation, and distress tolerance.

Mindfulness describes intentionally living with awareness in the present moment. This involves focusing on the here-and-now and paying attention to what you are experiencing without judgement.

For example, a common mindfulness activity is meditation. Other activities that could encourage mindfulness could be hiking, martial arts, going for walks, drawing, etc.

Basically, anything that keeps you from thinking about the past or future! Living in the present moment can help reduce worry or feelings of overwhelm.

Emotion Regulation is just as it sounds. DBT helps teach us how to understand and name our emotions, decrease the frequency of unwanted emotions, decrease emotional vulnerability, and decrease our emotional suffering. This component of DBT takes a lot of time and practice.

One activity that you could practice is naming and describing your emotions. For example, if you think you are feeling angry, consider if angry is truly the best word. Maybe a more accurate description could be agitated, frustrated, or irritated.

After naming the emotion, you can ask yourself questions about it. Such as, what prompted this feeling? What kind of bodily sensations am I feeling because of this emotion? How did I express this emotion? Becoming more aware of our feelings can help us communicate our emotions better.

Distress Tolerance is also called “crisis survival”. Essentially, these are skills we can use to help us tolerate painful events, urges, and emotions when you cannot make things better right away. Distress tolerance is not for everyday problems.

A common distress tolerance activity is called TIPP. TIPP stands for Temperature, Intense exercise, Paced breathing, and Paired muscle relaxation.

At home, start by applying something cold to your face. You can hold ice to your forehead and cheeks or dunk your head under cold water. If you don’t have access to something cold, try to engage in intense exercise; jumping, running, lifting weights, etc. You can also practice paced breathing which involves breathing into your belly and slowing your breathes. While focusing on your breathing, you could try tensing and relaxing different muscles throughout your body.

All of these skills can help reduce any extreme emotion fast.