DBT (Dialectical Behaviour Therapy)
Combines CBT with mindfulness, distress-tolerance, and emotion-regulation skills training, offered selectively for patients whose difficulty is centrally about emotion regulation.
What it is & how it works
Combines CBT techniques with mindfulness, distress-tolerance, emotion-regulation, and interpersonal-effectiveness skills training, originally developed for chronic suicidality and borderline presentations and now used more broadly for significant emotion-dysregulation.
How it's done
Typically administered as a combination of weekly individual therapy and a weekly skills-training group, over roughly six months to a year for a full program, delivered by a therapist trained specifically in DBT; between-session skills coaching is a standard component of the full model.
Conditions it treats
Why Brain Bridge
Reflects Brain Bridge's individualized-outcomes commitment: DBT is offered selectively for the specific patients whose difficulty is centrally about emotion regulation, rather than applied as a default across all mood presentations.
Evidence & safety
Established for emotion-regulation-focused presentations. Full-model DBT is resource-intensive; a skills-only adaptation may be used where the full program is not clinically necessary.
Related questions
DBT is built on CBT but adds a specific focus on emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and mindfulness, balancing acceptance with change; it also typically combines individual therapy with a weekly skills group, whereas standard CBT is usually delivered one-to-one.
It was originally developed for chronic suicidality and borderline personality disorder and remains most strongly evidenced there, though it is now also used more broadly for significant emotion dysregulation, including in some eating-disorder and mood-disorder presentations.