Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is also known as DBT. It was created by a psychologist Marsha M. Linehan in the latter part of the 1980's. It was developed to better be able to treat borderline personality disorder.
There are four modules that are associated with Dialectical Behavior Therapy. The modules are mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance and emotion regulation.
Working with people with engage in self injury can be emotional and confusing. It is many times extremely frustrating and distressing for those who have to try and understand why their patients keep trying to harm themselves. For those who have never experienced self harming, it is hard to understand why another person would try and cause injury to their body.
First people that engage in self injury do as a mechanism for coping with various emotions such as shame, self-hatred and guilt. Self-injury happens more often than we think. Many times those who engage in self injury often do it in hiding. They are often embarrassed or ashamed to admit that they are doing it.
According to Kids Helpline, the rate at which young people are doing self harm to their bodies is alarmingly increasing. As of the statistics in 2008, those who engaged in self injury were reported at least 7,710 times. With the 2009 statistics, those numbers had reached 8,166 reports of self harm. In Australia alone, there are upward of 6% of young people who engage in these acts.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) can stop self harming behavior. There is an acronym that many professionals use in order to help remember a certain technique that is used in therapy. It is known as T.I.P which stands for Temperature, Intense Exercise and Progressive relaxation.
Temperature has to do with your body temperature and how it relates to the changes in your nervous system. The person self harming needs to be aware of their diving reflex. This is displayed when being submerged in cold water or holding a cold ice pack against your face.
Intense Exercise is used to calm the person down when they are stressed and emotional. By having them engage in even a short exercise routine can help them calm down immensely. By running, jogging or walking fast will release some of the built up energy in the body.
Progressively relaxing your muscles can be achieved by mediation or just plain relaxation. Have the patient begin with their hands, moving to the forearms, shoulders, neck, forehead, eyes, cheeks and lips. Then from there move to the mouth, chest, back, stomach, rear end, thighs, calves, ankles and ending with the feet. Each specific area should be worked on 10 seconds each and then relax and move to the next part of the body.
Using this practice and these techniques can help you understand your patients better and why they engage in the self harming activities that they do. We may never fully understand why they do what they do but we can be more knowledgeable to help them.
For an updated, more in-depth look at this topic, see Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Its Treatment.