Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

Regulatory strategies

Biological and contextual management of factors that contribute to emotional vulnerability, which increases feelings of happiness and builds individual resilience.

DBT skills

• PLEASE technique (PLEASE is an acronym)

  • The letters P and L refer to the treatment of physical ilness

  • The letter E refers to balanced nutrition and eating

  • Letter A refers to staying off nonprescribed mood-altering drugs

  • The letter S refers to sleep management

  • The letter E refers to the corresponding physical activity( exercise)

• Encouraging an increase in positive life events and building a sense of generalised mastery

  • Behavioural experiments to increase positive events in a person's life

  • Work on ciljih, which are linked to important life values, increasing the likelihood of positive events

  • A sense of mastery is achieved by engaging in activities that increase a sense of competence and effectiveness

• Confrontations in advance

  • A skill that promotes contextual resilience

  • The individual is exposed to an imaginary situation within which he has to resolve a difficult situation appropriately.

  • Individuals who have problems with emotional regulation learn appropriate regulation skills that can help them in future situations.

Regulatory strategies

• Choice of situation

• Adapting to the situation

It is a way of controlling an emotional stimulus

DBT skills

• Problem solving

  • The aim is to develop and/or modify strategies that help the individual to reduce, eliminate or avoid an emotionally problematic situation.

  • The individual first defines the situations that arouse unwanted feelings, then learns problem-solving skills that he then adapts to his situation.

• Interpersonal effectiveness skills

  • The aim is to assertively maintain the desired goal without losing the interpersonal relationship

  • 'Getting ahead' is a good strategy for strengthening and developing these skills

  • Mindfulness techniques are also useful, as they broaden the repertoire of situations that can be selected without judgement or prior emotional charge.

  • Being in the present moment can enable one to see the current life situation exactly as it is. As a result, it is easier to choose an appropriate coping strategy.

Regulatory strategies

• Allocation of attention

Learning mindfulness techniques that help with attentional control. Mindfulness helps to control the focus of attention rather than changing the object of attention (The goal is to observe the emotion, not to change it), which helps to reduce the tendency to experience negative emotions.

Regulatory strategy

• Cognitive change

DBT skills

• Verification of facts

  • Learning to distinguish assumptions, interpretations and negative thoughts from the actual, observed facts of a situation

• Accepting reality

  • Learning to accept emotions rather than repressing them.

  • Radical acceptance of the full range of emotions - including negative and unpleasant ones

Regulatory strategy

• Biological change

  In the DBT model, the tendency to react in a specific way to a particular situation that evokes a particular emotion plays an important role.

DBT skills

• TIP skills quickly calm the high body arousal that accompanies the experience of negative emotions without requiring high cognitive abilities

  • The first technique is to change the temperature with cold water. The individual applies a cold/ice water stimulus to the face, which triggers the 'human diving reflex'. The reflex is triggered by a combination of breath holding and immersion of the face in cold water. It involves activation of both branches of the central nervous system and reduces emotional arousal for a short period of time.

  • Intense physical activity

  • Progressive relaxation and calm breathing

Regulatory strategies

• Change of expression and action

DBT skills

• The opposite act

  • It is based on a change in a specific response tendency, which not only reduces emotional stress, but effectively helps to change the emotion and the response tendency

  • Based on the exposure technique

  • The individual is exposed to a situation that evokes intense and negative emotions, which immediately changes the tendency to avoid, and then to react in a way that is different from the primary reaction.

• Counter-action 'to the end'

  • In addition to a change in the specific tendency to react, the individual also changes the whole range of physical responses (physiological response, body posture, non-verbal expression, etc.). This can trigger a biological feedback loop (muscle activity in the face) that changes the experienced emotion.

Regulatory strategies

• Emotional processing

DBT skills

• Identify and name emotions

  • The individual learns the basic emotions and their components (typical stimuli triggering the emotion; interpretation of the emotion; biological consequences of the emotion; expression of the emotion; consequences of the emotion; secondary emotions). He/she then practises identification and naming.