What Is Trauma-Focused DBT?
United States Department of Homeland Security
Key Points
- DBT skills stabilize attentional, behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and relational dysregulations.
- Useful skill sets are mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, dialectical thinking, and interpersonal effectiveness.
- DBT skills alone won’t eliminate intrusive symptoms; they require trauma processing.
- Models to process trauma range from top-down to bottom-up.
- Be trained in at least one model of trauma processing that is mostly top-down and at least one that is mostly bottom-up.
Materials Downloads
DBT for Trauma Online Training
Learn how to support clients struggling with trauma and complex trauma without reliance on traditional exposure methods.
Earn 9.25 CE Credits$297
Transcript
Welcome to the second video in this module. In the previous video, we established a case for adapting standard DBT when treating symptoms of PTSD and complex or developmental trauma. In this current video, we will learn precisely how trauma-focused DBT sets the stage for deeper trauma work. So, let’s get started. Okay.
So As you may recall from some of the previous videos, both simple and by the way I have that in quotes, both “simple” PTSD, as well as complex or developmental trauma, comprise a wide array of symptoms which can be categorized by the following themes: attentional dysregulation, behavioral dysregulation, emotional dysregulation, cognitive dysregulation, and relational dysregulation. So In other words, trauma affects all of those areas: attention, behavior, emotions, thoughts, and relationships.
Reutter, K. (2021). Trauma stabilization through polyvagal theory and DBT. Counseling Today, 64, 40–44.,Reutter, K., & DePasquale, D. (2019). The dialectical behavior therapy skills workbook for PTSD: Practical exercises for overcoming trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (1st ed.). New Harbinger Publications.
And as you may further recall from previous videos, DBT teaches specific skills to bring stabilization to each of those areas. So For example, the whole point of mindfulness is to address attentional dysregulation. The whole point of distress tolerance is to deal with behavioral dysregulation. The whole point of emotion regulation skills is to bring stabilization to mood and affect.
Reutter, K., & DePasquale, D. (2019). The dialectical behavior therapy skills workbook for PTSD: Practical exercises for overcoming trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (1st ed.). New Harbinger Publications.