If you have been looking for treatment options for mental disorders for yourself or someone near to you, you might have heart of both CBT and DBT. The goals of both Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy are the same. However, but have some significant differences in their philosophies.
What is DBT?
DBT is a relatively newer form of therapy that has gained a lot of success for certain types of disorders. The primary components of this type of therapy include:
- Helping patient accept themselves and their current situation
- Helping them form better emotional response to trigger situations
- Providing techniques to help avoid self harming behaviors
- Teaching mechanism to cope with external situations which have led to current disorders
While many therapists and rehabs offer DBT among other options, some such as mhs-dbt.com offer specialized programs that are focused exclusively on DBT. This can be helpful because the clinic has more expertise in treating extreme symptoms and how best to use this form of therapy.
What his CBT?
Cognitive Behavior Therapy or CBT is a very popular method that has found good success over the last 50 years. This form of therapy focuses primarily on mental aspects and helps in developing healthier patterns of thinking. It involves treatment with a highly qualified therapist. It helps patients develop better critical thinking skills.
CBT relies on therapists having very good relationships with a patient. It requires patients to trust their therapist a lot. It can help treat many mental disorders by understanding patients’ past and how they have come to develop certain thinking patterns.
Difference between CBT and DBT
In a way CBT is more of a catch-all term for different forms of behavioral therapies. DBT can be called a more specific type of cognitive behavioral therapy.
The primary differences between them include:
- CBT treatment is for a specific period of time, while DBT is more open ended
- CBT focuses more on rational thinking and reasoning, DBT on specific techniques
- DBT often has a group therapy component, while CBT is done in a more individual environment
- CBT has many concepts and uses a tailored few to match the patient’s needs
- DBT is based around a few concrete ideas
Cognitive Behavior Therapy has better results with depression, phobias, PTSD and such. Dialectical Behavior Therapy can help with all of these, and is especially more helpful with borderline personality disorders and other kinds of extreme behavior issues.