How DBT Skills Will Help Your Teen
As a teen therapist, I am often asked “How do I know if Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is right for my teen?”
DBT teaches your teen actionable in the moment skills to manage intense emotions. DBT focuses on learning to balance acceptance and change.
The main goals of DBT skills therapy are safety, learning useful coping skills, and creating a life worth living. DBT helps your teen learn to be more mindful and attuned to their emotions. Research shows that being able to identify and label our emotions helps to regulate how we feel.
In addition, DBT skills will also help your teen learn to make effective decisions, develop and maintain healthy relationships and find balance in their life.
HOW DBT HELPS TEENS MANAGE EMOTIONS
1. DBT teaches teens to make healthy relationship choices
As a teen, much of one’s understanding of themselves is impacted by their peer relationships. Big emotions can be part of their daily lives. DBT teaches teens interpersonal effectiveness skills, focusing on healthy relationships, boundaries, and how to make and maintain long-term friendships. DBT skills will help them navigate their teen years effectively!
2. DBT provides identifiable coping strategies to add to their toolbox!
Oftentimes, teens will seek out external forms of coping. They may cope through food, drugs, alcohol, self harm, or by means of another individual. DBT provides a concrete roadmap so teens not only have coping skills but know how and when to use them. This allows them to regulate their emotions independently and in a healthier way. Learning these coping skills and being aware of how to best use them can prepare your teen for any stressful, emotionally-charged situation.
3. DBT skills help teens handle distress and crisis situations
Did you know your teen’s brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty six? Because of this, teens are not able to fully consider the consequences of decision making or fully regulate their emotions. It is in the nature of an adolescent to act impulsively and have big emotional responses. During this critical period of brain development, DBT is incredibly helpful for teens to better manage these intense emotions and make effective choices.
When your teen learns concrete coping skills, you have not only prepared them to handle emotionally distressing situations today, but for the rest of their life! If you want to learn more about DBT read our post How DBT Helps Teens Manage with Distress or subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
