Distress Tolerance for Trauma

Greetings, and welcome to the fourth video in this review of TF-DBT. In this video we will do a quick review of distress tolerance. So let’s get started.

And the keyword here being quick, because as you remember, distress tolerance involves many different interventions that we have discussed in length in a previous module. But in summary, the purpose of distress tolerance is to replace impulsive, dangerous, addictive, or suicidal behaviors, in other words, behaviors which tend to thing--, make things even worse, with safer, more effective coping strategies. So In other words, the purpose of distress tolerance is to reduce a crisis orientation. So you can think of distress tolerance as harm reduction or damage control.

Linehan, M. M. (2015). DBT skills training manual (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.,Reutter, K. (2019). The dialectical behavior therapy skills workbook for PTSD: Practical exercises for overcoming trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. New Harbinger Publications.

The goal is not necessarily long-term change. That’s where later skills will come in handy. The goal is also not necessarily to reduce or eliminate pain but rather to find ways to make pain more manageable. So, in other words, the point of distress tolerance is not necessarily to make things better. It’s to help clients stop making things even worse. So obviously, there are entire skill sets in DBT that are designed to help clients make things better, right, to build a life that’s worth living, those long-term change strategies, but it’s hard to get a client to that point when they’re still actively making things even worse. That’s where distress tolerance comes in handy.

Linehan, M. M. (2015). DBT skills training manual (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.,Reutter, K. (2019). The dialectical behavior therapy skills workbook for PTSD: Practical exercises for overcoming trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. New Harbinger Publications.