Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Serious and Persistent Mental Illness: A Skills-based Approach-View Presentation

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Video Summary

The webinar focused on Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) for serious mental illness, led by Anita Mandley, an integrative psychotherapist. DBT, primarily developed for conditions such as borderline personality disorder, utilizes skills-based approaches like mindfulness, emotional regulation, and distress tolerance. Standard DBT emphasizes decreasing maladaptive behaviors and increasing coping skills, focusing on mindfulness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Meanwhile, Radically Open DBT targets issues of over-control, including traits found in disorders like OCD and chronic depression, by fostering social connectedness and emotional openness.<br /><br />Anita expanded on dialectics, describing it as the interaction of opposing forces in one’s mind and how changes occur through this interaction. She emphasized the importance of both the therapy's standard and radically open approaches in addressing serious mental illness.<br /><br />Practical application included selecting whether therapy is individual or in a group, the dynamics of members in these settings, and incorporating therapists' radical openness into practice. Group work offers peer engagement, crucial for social learning, but individualized sessions require therapists to embody group dynamics, sharing personal insights to encourage connection.<br /><br />Radical openness in practice encourages challenging one's perceptions and engaging fully with clients, enhancing the therapist-client relationship. The approach guides individuals to tolerate distress and respond flexibly to social cues, enhancing their capacity to connect and engage socially.<br /><br />Resources and further education in DBT were recommended for practitioners to deepen their understanding and application. The session concluded with an invitation to future webinars and ways for participants to seek further learning and support through the SMI Advisor platform.

Keywords

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

DBT

Anita Mandley

serious mental illness

mindfulness

emotional regulation

distress tolerance

Radically Open DBT

social connectedness

therapist-client relationship