Thank you. A short description of what DBT can involve (I'm going to make assertions, but I really mean "in my opinion" or "as far as I understand it" or "the part that interests me is", everywhere):
Behavioral therapy is focused on working with behavior as opposed to psychoanalysis where people talk about their thought process and their feelings. The hope of psychotherapy is to have a realization about things one was previously confused about. Behavioral therapy is like teaching a dog to sit and stay.
Rather than seeking a cure for depression/anxiety, an approach like DBT aims to build frustration tolerance. It is like how physical exercise slowly builds strength and stamina in the body. Instead of physical stamina, one builds mental stability and stamina, not because there is some fact that you learn, but because you are conditioned to tolerate disappointments.
The importance of this needs to be experienced.
DBT exercises can be put into 2 big categories. One is disputing irrational beliefs and the other is distraction.
For example, an exercise can involve noting details of an event that was distressing. What was the event that lead one to become upset? What was your reaction to the event? What belief did you have about the event? Was the belief rational? What ideas could dispute the belief that you had?
The idea of distraction is that some events are too distressing to think about in much detail, without upsetting oneself. When one finds they are upsetting themselves too much about some event, you back off and find a way to distract yourself.
A similar approach is REBT (rational emotive behavioral therapy). My experience has been that the community around REBT is more rigid about what one is supposed to do. It used to be that REBT in SMART promoted the idea that thoughts always precede emotions and you can "control" your emotions through thought. That is a pretty harmful belief, in my opinion.
If that sounds interesting to anyone, let me know. I should be attending SMART online meetings, but most of the people involved are dealing with substance abuse or gambling addiction. Neither of those are of concern to me.
An important aspect of DBT and REBT is that there isn't really a role for someone who is an expert who teaches you something. So, it is harder for a hierarchy to be formed within the group. This makes them perfect for group therapy and welcomed by rather anti-authoritarian people, such as myself.
