DBT and Trauma

United States Department of Homeland Security

Trauma-focused DBT is a modification of standard DBT designed to treat symptoms of trauma and is based on the polyvagal theory.
The purpose of DBT is to help clients get out of the hell of trauma through skills work.
The purpose of trauma-focused DBT is to help clients stabilize so they can proceed with deeper trauma work
Dialectics refers to the process of bringing together opposites, which also implies being able to look at something from multiple perspectives.
Healing from mental illness often requires a restoration of dialectics.
People who have been traumatized have a very characteristic set of dialectical dilemmas
The primary dialectic in DBT is acceptance vs change.
No magic algorithm determines the correct balance between acceptance and change for any given client or crisis.
Trauma is invalidating, and invalidation is traumatizing. Therefore, validation is essential to all trauma work