​Austin DBT Groups

DBT Skills Groups can help individuals who struggle with clinical or chronic depression. The theme of DBT is to Build a Life Worth Living.   Therefore, the skills taught in this module can help one who suffers from depression learn the skills to cope with intrusive and suicidal thinking, learn how to challenge negative thinking patterns, cope with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, and learn to engage with life and relationships more fully and be in the present moment.     Here are the specific ways that the modules taught in DBT treats symptoms of depression:   

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Mindfulness:  these skills help individuals to label and identify thoughts that contribute to depression and to instead access their Wise Mind to help them see the whole picture and not overly attach to harmful thoughts and urges.   People who struggle with depression may get stuck in thoughts about the past or get very anxious thinking about the future. This module teaches one to stay in the present moment and to redirect one's attention when the mind does wander and to be more intentional with decision making.   

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Interpersonal Effectiveness:  these skills help individuals who struggle with depression gain confidence in themselves in terms of being assertive, reaching out for new relationships, weeding out harmful ones if necessary, and setting intentions on how to build and maintain social support.  It is common individuals with depression tend to isolate and avoid which leads to a lack of social support and anxiety about reaching out for new relationships.    Skills are taught to support individuals in learning to trust themselves again in terms of knowing how to prioritize and attend to relationships.   

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Emotion Regulation:  these skills help individuals with depression to learn how to manage their mood and not allow their depression to keep them stuck in harmful behavioral patterns.  A common/favorite skill is that is gone over in this module that helps one with depression is the Opposite Action skill. This skills encourages individuals with depression to act opposite of their urges to avoid, isolate, or not follow through on tasks.    This module also teaches specific skills to help one become more resilient with coping with hard times in life by focusing on skills to use on a daily basis to make one less vulnerable to negative emotions. 

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Distress Tolerance:  these skills help individuals with depression to work on acceptance based skills to help them cope with situations and relationships out of their control.    Also, this module teaches the specific skills to lower the intensity of painful emotions instead of going to self-destructive behaviors to cope.   These skills help individuals to tolerate tough times and "bear the pain skillfully."   It may not solve the root issues, but it helps with grounding techniques and skills to help one persevere when feeling distressed.