Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
DBT at Luma Therapeutic Services
Life can feel overwhelming, especially when emotions seem too big, too fast, or completely out of control. If you have found yourself caught in patterns of intense emotion, relationship conflict, or behaviours that feel impossible to stop even when you want to, DBT was designed with you in mind.
At Luma Therapeutic Servies, DBT is offered as a comprehensive, skills-based therapy for adolescents, adults, and parents who are ready to build a life that feels more manageable, and more like their own.
What is DBT?
DBT was originally developed for individuals experiencing chronic emotional dysregulation and suicidal thinking. It has since become one of the most researched and effective therapies available for a wide range of presentations.
The word dialectical refers to the core balance DBT holds: accepting yourself exactly as you are while also working toward meaningful change. Sounds contradictory right? It isn’t, it’s a dialectical way of thinking and being.
DBT is structured around four skills areas including:
- Mindfulness – A foundational skill that involves learning to observe your experience without being swept away and controlled by it
- Distress tolerance – Surviving crisis moments without making things worse
- Emotional regulation – Understanding your emotions and reducing their intensity over time
- Interpersonal effectiveness – Asking for what you need, saying no, and maintaining relationships that matter to you
For adolescents and parents, DBT includes an additional skill called walking the middle path which helps find the middle balance between acceptance and change within the parent-teen relationship and includes validation skills for both young people and the adults supporting them.
Who is DBT for?
DBT may be a good fit if you or your young person are experiencing:
- Intense or rapidly shifting emotions that feel hard to manage
- Difficulties in relationships such as conflict, fear of abandonment, or shutting down
- Self-harm, suicidal thoughts, or urges to use harmful coping strategies
- Impulsive behaviours that create consequences you did not want
- A sense that other therapies haven’t quite landed for you
DBT is commonly used for Borderline Personality Disorder, but it effective across a much wider range of presentations including depression, anxiety, eating disorders, PTSD, and emotional dysregulation in adolescents.
Is this right for me?
“I have tried therapy before and it hasn’t helped”
DBT is highly structured and skill focused, which works differently to insight based or talk therapies. If you’ve felt like therapy was too vague or didn’t give you enough to do, DBT might be worth exploring.
“My teenager is really struggling and I didn’t know what to do to help”
Adolescent DBT at Luma Therapeutic Services includes a strong focus on the parent relationship. You don’t have to sit on the sidelines, and skills will be explored with both the adolescent and the parent to increase the support for the young person, and strategies for the parents.
“I just want to know what to do, I don’t want to talk to someone about my past”
That is exactly what DBT offers. It is present and future focused and offers practical strategies for moving forward.