The teenage years are characterized by big emotions. But for some teenagers, emotions can be so strong and come on so quickly that they feel overwhelming. These emotional challenges may happen together with suicide ideation, suicide attempts, and/ or self-harm behaviors (that are not suicidal).It can be terrifying for parents when their teen is showing signs of self-harm or suicidality. But you and your family don’t need to go through this alone – and there is support available to you.
Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, is an effective type of therapy that was developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan to help people manage intense emotions and the behaviors that go along with them, such as suicidal and self-harming behaviors.
DBT was originally used to help adults struggling with suicidal and self-harming behaviors and adults with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), but DBT has now been revealed to be an established, evidence-based treatment for suicidal and self-harming teens.
DBT focuses heavily on helping your teen learn important skills to manage strong and painful emotions. These skills can be categorized into 4 groups
Helps teens stay in the present moment, even when their emotions feel overwhelming. Using mindfulness, your teen can learn how to observe their emotional highs and lows without becoming overly attached to them.
helps your teen to use healthier and more effective communication styles with both you and the other people in their life. In this way, they can start to build more fulfilling and supportive interpersonal relationships.
being able to withstand intense emotional storms. For example, one important distress tolerance skill is healthy distraction. You and your teen can learn to use healthy distractions (like watching a funny movie or going for a walk) to get through emotionally painful moments – without using self-harm as a coping tool.
helps teens learn how to change emotions that they want to change. For example, they might challenge unhelpful thinking patterns that cause them to experience emotional pain.
At Cadence, our DBT treatment includes:
Weekly individual therapy session
Weekly 2-hr group sessions with client and caregiver to learn and practice skills
24/7 access to phone coaching support.
In addition, we require a minimum commitment of 6 months. This is because it takes a minimum of 24 weeks to get through all of the DBT skills. Staying in treatment is a key factor that predicts whether or not DBT will be effective for your teen. Even if they start to feel better and problematic behaviors improve – it’s important to get the full dose of treatment.
Like with our other programs at Cadence, it’s critical that caregivers participate in DBT sessions with their teens. Research shows that DBT is most effective when caregivers are involved and learning new skills, too. You are required to attend the weekly 2-hour group session. You may also be asked to attend other sessions as needed.
The main goal of DBT group sessions is to teach and practice the important skills listed above. Each week, the group will learn a new skill. These sessions are designed to be more like classes or workshops than group therapy.
