Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive behavioral therapy used to treat people with out-of-control emotions and behaviors. It is based on decades of research that shows it to be an effective treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD), suicidal and self-harming behaviors, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder, depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions that involve intense emotional dysregulation.
Dr. Marsha Linehan, the founder of DBT therapy, often says that there are an enormous number of psychological treatments that don’t have any evidence to back them up, and there are an enormous number of mental health conditions that don’t have any evidence-based treatments. As a behaviorist, she believes that it is vitally important that if we are going to provide a treatment, we must have evidence that it actually works.
