Dialectical Behavior Therapy vs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Techniques

DBT uses three types of therapy approaches to teaching the four core skills of mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotional regulation. Some believe this combination of techniques is part of what makes DBT so effective.

One-on-one therapy

DBT usually involves an hour of one-on-one therapy each week. In these sessions, you’ll talk with your therapist about whatever you’re working on or trying to manage. Your therapist will also use this time to build up your skills and help you navigate specific challenges.

Skills training

DBT involves a skills training group, which is similar to a group therapy session. Skills groups usually meet once a week for two to three hours. The meetings generally last for 24 weeks, but many DBT programs repeat the skills training so the program lasts a full year. During skills group, you’ll learn about and practice each skill, talking through scenarios with other people in your group. This is one of the key components of DBT.

Phone coaching

Some therapists also offer phone coaching for extra support between your one-on-one appointments. This might be a good thing to have in your back pocket if you often find yourself feeling overwhelmed or just need a bit of extra support. Over the phone, your therapist will guide you through how to use your DBT skills to tackle the challenge at hand.

How Does DBT Work? 

DBT incorporates four skills intended to help individuals overcome their unhealthy behaviors and distressing thoughts. Each set of skills has its own unique characteristics that help clients better understand their emotions.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a mental state characterized by being aware and accepting of the present moment, including our feelings, thoughts, and environment. Mindful individuals focus on the moment without judgment. Mindfulness is a skill that teaches clients to control their thoughts and to avoid letting their minds control their lives. They can use this skill and knowledge to better understand their emotions, maintain a positive state of mind, and effectively accept stress rather than push it away.

Benefits of Dialectical Behavior Therapy 

In DBT, the client and therapist work to resolve the obvious contradiction between self-acceptance and change to bring about positive results in the individual in treatment. Part of the DBT process involves offering validation, which helps individuals become more likely to cooperate and less likely to experience distress at the notion of change.

In practice, the therapist validates that an individual’s actions “make sense” within the context of their personal experiences without necessarily agreeing that the actions are the best approach to solving a problem.

Each therapeutic setting has its own goals and structure, but the characteristics of DBT can be found in individual psychotherapy, and phone coaching.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Benefits in Addiction Treatment 

DBT is beneficial in addiction treatment because it addresses harmful behaviors that act as barriers to improving people’s lives. Within addiction treatment programs, DBT focuses on substance use and how it affects the quality of life, while also promoting target behaviors essential for overcoming addiction. 

These behavioral targets include:

9 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Techniques 

The fundamental principle behind cognitive behavioral therapy is that your thought patterns affect your emotions, which, in turn, can affect your behaviors. For example, cognitive behavioral therapy emphasizes how negative thoughts can lead to negative feelings and actions. But, if you reframe your thoughts in a more positive way, it can lead to more positive feelings and helpful behaviors.

Some of the techniques that are most often used with cognitive behavioral therapy include the following 9 strategies:

4. Thought Records and Journaling 

This technique is journaling your thoughts and moods, which includes the time of the mood, the source of it, the intensity of the mood, and how you react to it. It helps you to understand your thought pattern and emotional tendencies. Putting it in writing can help you see how far you’ve come.

5. Behavior Activation and Activity Scheduling

If there’s an activity you tend to avoid or put off because of fear or anxiety, getting it on your calendar can help. Once the burden of a decision is gone, you may be more likely to follow through. In addition, activity scheduling can help establish good habits and allow you to put what you’ve learned into practice.

6. Behavioral Experiments

Behavioral experiments are often used for anxiety disorders that involve catastrophic thinking. Before undertaking a task that usually makes you anxious, you’ll be asked to predict what will happen. Later, you’ll talk about whether the prediction came true. Over time, you may see that the expected catastrophe is not very likely to happen. You’ll likely start with lower-anxiety tasks and build up from there.

7. Relaxation and Stress Reduction Techniques

In cognitive behavioral therapy, you may be taught some progressive relaxation techniques, such as:

• Deep breathing exercises. This technique is all about relaxing and bringing regularity to your breath. It will allow your mind to approach balanced thinking facilitating rational and more effective decisions. In addition, it will reveal you from various kinds of mental illness.
• Muscle relaxation. If you have ever practiced yoga for addiction recovery, then it will be familiar to you. This technique teaches you to relax a group of body muscles at a time. Thus it makes you relax your whole body muscle. It will calm your nerves and soothe your busy mind.
• Imagery. This technique will be helpful for you if you are suffering from anxiety and fear. You will go through a sort of experiment in which you will imagine the outcome of the worst case. This scenario will make you stronger by perceiving that if the fear comes out, it will be manageable.

8. Role-playing

Role-playing can help you work through different behaviors in potentially tricky situations. Playing out possible scenarios can lessen fear and can be used for:

9. Successive Approximation

This involves taking tasks that seem overwhelming and breaking them into smaller, more achievable steps. Each successive step builds upon the previous steps so you gain confidence as you go, bit by bit.

Benefits and Limitations of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Treatment 

The chief strength of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) lies in the fact that it not only helps the individual to overcome the symptoms of issues currently being experienced but also equips them with new skills and strategies which can be used with future difficulties or issues.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy vs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Many addiction treatment services focus on therapies like Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy CBT. Normally, clients will choose between dialectical behavior therapy vs cognitive behavioral therapy with the help of their therapist or counselor. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is often the first line of response to depression because it is so effective. Meanwhile, Dialectical Behavior Therapy is generally the top choice for borderline personality disorder.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is also a top therapy for treating panic disorder, sleep problems, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Doctors use DBT for sexual trauma, self-harm behaviors, and suicidal ideation. While DBT focuses on mindfulness and emotional regulation, cognitive behavioral therapy centers around how feelings, thoughts, and behaviors impact each other. Both techniques are useful in treating mental disorders, so the right choice depends entirely on the individual’s unique situation and needs.

Ultimately, DBT and CBT are both effective ways to treat addiction and mental illnesses. Choosing between DBT vs CBT depends entirely on your personal needs. When you enter a treatment program, an intake specialist will perform an initial assessment to figure out the kinds of addiction therapy services you need. Then, you can begin your personalized treatment process.

Difference Between Cognitive and Dialectical Behavior Therapy 

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is simply a modified form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that uses traditional cognitive-behavioral techniques, but also implements other skills like acceptance, mindfulness, and tolerating distress.

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