What is a DBT Skills Group?

Are you thinking about potentially joining a DBT group in the greater Philadelphia area? Are you curious about what happens during these DBT groups? Maybe your talk therapist or psychiatrist suggested you check out a DBT group to help you along your journey to recovery. Whatever the case may be, I wanted to take the time to explain what exactly Dialectical Behavioral Therapy is and what actually happens during a group! A lot of you might be wondering, how is DBT different from other group therapies? Well, I am here to tell you about DBT in general and the benefits one can reap from these groups. 

So, what is Dialectical Behavioral Therapy or DBT?

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy that was developed by Marsha Linehan, Ph.D., in the early 1980s. Linehan first created this theoretical approach to treat individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD), as these individuals often experienced extreme negative emotions and had difficulty in managing these emotions. Eventually, Linehan and others discovered that DBT can be utilized with a number of differing populations, which is pretty awesome! Whether you suffer from an eating disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, or even post-traumatic stress disorder DBT can potentially help you! So, enough with the history lesson about the birth of DBT and let's talk about what DBT actually is.

The goal of DBT is to teach clients new skills to manage their painful emotions and to decrease conflict in the interpersonal relationships that we have. Through DBT, participants are able focus on four specific modules, which include:

Mindfulness

Distress Tolerance 

Emotional Regulation

Interpersonal Effectiveness 

How is joining a DBT group different from other therapy groups? 

1. DBT is NOT a process group 

It is important for potential participants to understand that the DBT group is not your typical processing group, in fact, it really is NOT a processing group at all. So, do not expect to gab about how annoying your significant other is or how the individual that cut you off while driving around Center City annoyed you. Rather, be prepared to put in some hard core rewarding work! 

Group members in a DBT group are taught new skills and tools that they can utilize in their everyday life. The tools that are learned include: mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness. These new skills that are learned really allow participants to build a life that they truly want.

2. DBT is NOT a support group 

The focus of a DBT group is not to support the members necessarily, even though you will receive support through the skills that you learn! However, it is essential for members to be aware of the fact that participants will not be going around the room sharing details about why or what brought them to the group. Rather, you and the other members will be learning the skills related to DBT. Now that does not mean you will not get to share aspects about yourself, because you definitely will when it is appropriate! But, it is important to keep in mind that this is a different kind of group and even though it might be different, it is definitely rewarding! 

3. DBT IS like a class 

I will be honest, joining a DBT group is like committing to an actual class. You have to be willing to put in the work both in and out of group meetings in order to yield the results. And yes, that means, you will have to do some homework (deep eye-roll). However, the homework that you do, is only going to serve you in the long-run! I promise, therapists would not give you homework unless we seriously believed it will and can help you. 

So, even though you will have homework, you won’t have to cram for tests and you will not be receiving a grade either (yippie!). You will simply be learning new skills each week and will be given tasks to complete in order to try out these tools. So, again like any class that you may have taken, you get what you put into it! But I really encourage you to put your all into a DBT group to reap the many benefits. 

What happens during a DBT group? 

You might be wondering, what exactly goes on during these DBT skill groups? Well, a few things occur during our time together! These include: 

1. Mindfulness Practice

Mindfulness is the foundation of DBT. And you might be doing a deep eye roll right now because you have no idea how to be mindful or maybe do not even believe in mindfulness. But, I promise, if you stick with this group, you WILL learn how to be more mindful and intuitive. 

Prior to reviewing homework or learning a new skill, the group begins with a mindfulness practice. The practice varies each week, which really allows you to try a plethora of practices! This is a plus because if you happen to find a mindfulness practice that you enjoy or even brings you joy, you can incorporate it into your daily life. So, do not sweat it if you have no prior experience with mindfulness because guess what I just started my mindfulness journey less than a year ago! It takes time and that's okay. 

2. Homework Review 

The word homework still makes me shutter to this day. Instead of thinking of this as homework, think of it as your time to focus on yourself, your self-care, your “you” time. It is important to keep in mind that these tasks that you are being given outside of the group are to only benefit you, as they really can help you do and view things through a different lens, a lens you might have not used before. 

DBT homework is meant to be therapeutic in nature. It simply requires you to sit down with yourself and practice the skills that you learned in the group. And I know that sounds hard because, hey we are all super busy! But I encourage you to set an alarm, to turn everything off and to focus on your DBT skills for a few moments because it will only help you in the long run. 

At the end of each DBT group meeting, you will be assigned a DBT worksheet to complete for the following week. The worksheet aligns with the skill that you learned! So, don’t fret, we are not grading how well you fill out the DBT skills worksheet nor are you being given a grade. Rather, the worksheet is very user friendly and guides the user through a step-by-step process of how to fill out that worksheet. And, if for some reason you do not have time to complete that worksheet for that week, do not judge yourself so hard. Be honest and give yourself grace because DBT groups require a lot. 

3. Learning a New Coping Skill

Lastly, you will be learning a new skill while in group! DBT skills are broken down into four different modules. These modules include:

Mindfulness encourages us to pay attention and to be in the present moment. When one is mindful, you are purposefully paying attention to the present moment without judgement. 

Distress Tolerance is a skill that is geared toward increasing our tolerance of difficult emotions, rather than running away from our emotions. Through distress tolerance, participants are taught how to essentially “survive” difficult feelings without making things worse. Think of this skill as a new way to ride out a feeling. 

Emotional Regulation provides us with strategies to manage and change intense emotions that are causing problems in our lives. Essentially, this skill asks us to take a step back and understand what exactly caused the emotion and how to decrease these difficult emotions.

Interpersonal Effectiveness teaches us new ways to communicate with others, while teaching us to be assertive and respectful in the relationships that we do have with others.

DBT has so many benefits! Not only are you learning new skills, but you are changing the ways in which you react, emotionally, behaviorally and mentally.

You are re-wiring your brain, which is pretty cool. However, it is important to be up front about a DBT group. A DBT group does require a lot of work in order to learn those four modules. It is not always easy and can be tiring. So, it is essential to keep in mind that a DBT group is very different from other therapy group experiences, as it is quite structured. But this structure is truly essential to have when learning DBT skills as clear instruction allows you to truly utilize these new skills in your everyday life. In the end, if you are considering joining a DBT group, do your research! Ask questions! Get curious! Because the more willing you are to experiment with new skills that you will learn, the more you will benefit!

Spilove Psychotherapy’s next 14 week DBT Skills Group starts Monday, November 30, 2020! Contact us today to reserve your spot!

About the Author:

Julia Salerno is a graduate intern at Spilove Psychotherapy and is working toward her Masters in Mental Health Counseling from Villanova University. Julia received her bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Health Services with minors in Psychology and Health Care Ethics from Saint Joseph’s University in 2019. Julia strives to create a warm, comforting, and safe environment for her clients to share their story with her. Julia utilizes both Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialect Behavioral Therapy (DBT) when working with clients. She enjoys working with adults and the geriatric population. Julia believes that the cornerstone of therapy is taking the necessary time to build and nurture the client-therapist relationship, as doing so allows for clients to feel a sense of trust.