​Austin DBT Groups

Jennifer often coordinates care with couples therapists in Austin who refer their clients to DBT Skills Group in order to learn coping skills so that the couples therapy is more effective.   The DBT Skills group is a supplement to the couples therapy.    Jennifer has found this beneficial as it is a common problem that couples therapy will bring up past issues, triggers, and emotional wounds from the past that can be hard to communicate about and work through.   Here are some examples of specific ways that the modules taught in DBT can help individuals who are in high conflict relationships with romantic partners:

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Mindfulness:  these skills can help individuals slow down emotional reactions when triggered.  It is common that high conflict couples will respond ineffectively to conflict by being defensive, shutting down, escalating, and being aggressive.    The mindfulness skills help individuals to take a step back, access their Wise Mind instead of being reactive, and being more effective with how to approach their goals.  

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Interpersonal Effectiveness:  these skills can help individuals to be more clear about what their priority is instead of reacting out of their emotions (such as anger, shame, or anxiety).   These skills help those in relationships to think things out in terms of how firmly to stand their ground, how to be assertive and set boundaries appropriately, and how to validate and maintain self-respect in relationships.    This module also addresses trust issues and to work through myths and fears regarding past issues (i.e. betrayal, rejection) in order to trust oneself better and also test the waters in learning to trust others again.   

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Emotion Regulation:  these skills help individuals who are prone to high conflict relationships to learn to manage their intense emotions more effectively instead of acting out on it in a way that damages the relationship.  Feelings of anger, rejection, hurt, fear, and disappointment are common emotions that come up in romantic relationships due to specific triggers.     These skills help individuals to work through these stressors and triggers instead of going to behaviors (i.e. attacking, blaming, criticizing) that then triggers the other person even more.   

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Distress Tolerance:  these skills help individuals in relationships to sit with and tolerate uncomfortable emotions instead of acting out in a way that pushes the other person away or escalates the conflict even more.  These acceptance based skills help individuals to tolerate uncomfortable situations and stressors and even their partner instead blaming and over-focusing on the other person and what they want them to change.