Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a psychotherapy that began as an effort to treat personality disorders and interpersonal conflict, and evidence suggests it is also useful for mood disorders, suicidal ideation and behavioral patterns such as self-harm and substance use. In DBT the therapist and client work together with acceptance-oriented and change-oriented strategies, ultimately balancing and synthesizing the two in a process comparable to the philosophical dialectical movement from thesis to antithesis to synthesis. Within psychology, DBT is grouped among the third-wave behavioral therapies that followed classical behavior therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.