How DBT Helps Teen Girls Overcome Trauma
PTSD: What is it?
PTSD is a terrible, life-changing incident experienced or witnessed that causes ongoing negative feelings associated with the traumatic event. In the instance of Complex PTSD, the trauma is brought on by a string of continuing experiences. Aversive changes in thought and mood are among the symptoms, along with intrusive recollections, avoidance, and changes in physical and emotional reactions. The symptoms might manifest right away or years later. PTSD may be treated in any scenario. Your quality of life might suffer from PTSD, which can range from moderate to incapacitating.
How Does DBT Help Overcome PTSD?
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a modified form of CBT (CBT). It teaches people to be present, manage stress, regulate emotions, and improve interpersonal connections. DBT can lessen the effects of PTSD. At Evangelhouse, DBT teaches our girls techniques for grounding so that they may remain in the present moment through mindfulness. By controlling one’s emotions and coping with stress, DBT techniques can aid in controlling the agitation our girls experience in reaction to intrusive thoughts. Along with individual weekly psychotherapy, skills groups, and ongoing milieu therapy, support for these symptoms is provided both inside and outside of treatment sessions. DBT gives our girls instruction on how to apply therapy techniques to particular circumstances in their life.
Common DBT Therapy Techniques for PTSD
It is emphasized in DBT treatment for PTSD that conflict and tension are a component of our experiences and that there is no “one ultimate truth.” DBT contends that many viewpoints may each have a purpose. To put it another way, DBT admits that we frequently need to think in shades of gray rather than in black and white. Many diagnoses, including borderline personality disorder, indicate that the patient is engaged in black-and-white thinking. This is a common cognitive distortion for many of the girls we treat.
DBT for PTSD may result in:
- Prevention of negative responses. Exposure and response prevention are treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that teach patients how to avoid their triggers in their natural surroundings. Response prevention is the process of getting rid of unfavorable or undesirable habits, including avoidance. It’s fine to practice exposure in treatment sessions to get ready for certain inevitable triggers.
- Greater awareness of the current moment, including signals, triggers, and sensations, may be attained via mindfulness, which can be learned. Tolerating stress is something we must learn to do in order to prevent making a stressful situation worse. Tolerance is crucial for effective emotion regulation since such dangers may be real or only perceived.
- Improved self-acceptance. Self-acceptance is the acceptance that pain does not always have to equate to suffering and that you can overcome what happened to you by regaining control, handling the emotions as they arise, and allowing yourself to feel and heal. This type of acceptance is about not being okay with being hurt, abused, or traumatized.
- Interpersonal effectiveness: this ability allows individuals to manage conflict, create good relationships, and make decisions that are healthy and productive
- The ability to successfully control and overcome our emotions. It’s crucial to keep in mind that while sentiments are valid, our responses to them can have a significant impact.
- Validation: Because the stress and grief might feel too much to bear, persons with PTSD may question their own reality and what occurred to them. Because of this, affirmation is crucial to the healing process.
If you believe your daughter would benefit from DBT for trauma, please contact Evangelhouse today!
