I have always been in pretty good health, so I was surprised one day when my doctor told me my blood pressure was a bit high. She told me to begin watching my salt intake, start exercising, and to try to relax. Well, I intended to follow her advice when I left her office, but the next day I was back to my same habits. I kept using the salt shaker and didn't begin an exercise routine like I had planned. When I went for my next check-up, she told me that my blood pressure was even higher and approaching a dangerous level. I had to begin a blood pressure medication to manage it. I wanted to create a blog to share my story and remind people to listen to their doctors' advice. If a few lifestyle changes can improve your health, then you should make them.
If you are a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist and want to expand your services, you might want to consider getting certified to offer dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). This form of therapy is widely recognized and used in the field you are in and is extremely effective when used properly. Before you look into training, you might want to learn more about what DBT, what it involves, and how it works.
What Is DBT?
DBT is a method of behavioral therapy that was first developed in the 1980s, and its primary purpose was to treat patients who suffered from personality disorders. Since the time it was created, it has effectively been used to treat a wide variety of mental health issues with people of all ages.
The principle behind DBT is that most people react in ways that are normal in situations, but people with mental illnesses do not. People with mental illnesses often react in ways that are intense, uncontrollable, and very unusual. DBT is designed to help people like this learn to react in ways that are normal.
If you become certified in this, you may be able to help many of your clients work through their feelings and learn new approaches for responding and reacting to things. You can use DBT with patients that have personality disorders or depression, and this method also works well for treating people who are suicidal.
What Techniques Do You Use With DBT?
DBT is a form of behavioral therapy, which means that one of the main goals is to retrain the brain to think differently. Anyone who has studied the brain and the way people think know, without any uncertainty, how powerful the brain is. A person can convince him or herself of almost anything if he or she tells the brain the same things over and over.
Performing DBT with your clients will involve similar methods as you may already be using. One of these is meeting weekly with a client to talk. With DBT, one of the main goals is helping people understand how they have control of their thoughts and behavior. It involves helping them see where their thinking process is not healthy or correct and learning ways to change that.
The other main technique used in DBT is group work, and this is often completed in a classroom-like setting where multiple clients meet together. During these meetings, your role as the psychologist is to help them learn new and improved ways to act, respond, and live.
Sessions that involve DBT typically aim to teach all the clients four basic types of skills, and each of these is important for people with personality disorders or mental health issues. The four skills are mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and emotion regulation. When a person is able to learn these skills and begin applying them, the person's behavior is likely to improve little by little.
How Effective Is This?
Numerous studies have been completed on how effective DBT is, and almost all the studies proved that this is a very effective way to treat a variety of different problems. It seems to be more effective for certain disorders compared to others, but it can help with most personality disorders. It tends to be less effective for helping people with mental disorders but more effective for people with behavior disorders, such as problems controlling anger.
Getting DBT training could not only allow you to broaden the scope of services offered through your business, but it could also improve the chances of helping people with personality disorders actually get better. If you would like to learn more about this, contact an agency that offers DBT training today.
Share21 April 2017
