What are Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills?

Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, is a cognitive-behavioral treatment that balances acceptance with change. It teaches practical skills for managing intense emotions, tolerating distress, improving relationships, and staying present.

A full comprehensive DBT program has specific components and provider requirements. Many treatment programs, including MRC’s current mental-health service description, appropriately refer to DBT skills or DBT-informed interventions when using selected skills within a broader plan.

How the approach works

  • Mindfulness: noticing the present moment with less judgment
  • Distress tolerance: getting through crises without making the situation worse
  • Emotion regulation: understanding emotions and reducing vulnerability
  • Interpersonal effectiveness: communicating needs, setting boundaries, and protecting relationships

What it may support

  • Emotional intensity and impulsive reactions
  • Self-defeating coping patterns
  • Relationship conflict
  • Trauma-related distress
  • Substance-use recovery
  • Mood, anxiety, and stress symptoms

What to expect

Clients may learn a skill, discuss how it applies to a recent situation, practice it in session, and develop a plan for using it outside treatment.

DBT skills are not a promise that painful emotions will disappear. The aim is to increase choices and effectiveness when emotions are strong.

Treatment at Montco Recovery Center

MRC states that its clinicians may use DBT skills as part of evidence-based mental health treatment. Skills can be integrated into individual therapy, groups, relapse prevention, coping-skills development, and recovery planning.

The clinician determines whether DBT-informed work, comprehensive DBT elsewhere, another modality, or a combination is the best fit.
Montco Recovery Center is located at 262 Bethlehem Pike, Suite 102, Colmar, PA 18915 and serves adults from Montgomery County, Bucks County, and surrounding communities.

Levels of care and services

Mental Health Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) provides structured daytime support for adults whose symptoms significantly affect daily functioning but who do not require 24-hour inpatient care.

Outpatient mental health services may be appropriate for adults seeking individual, group, family, medication-management, and wellness support with greater schedule flexibility. Placement is based on assessment, safety, functioning, and clinical need.

Take the next step

If symptoms are affecting your daily life, you do not have to sort through them alone. Call Montco Recovery Center at (215) 398-1888 to ask about current services or schedule a confidential assessment.

If there is an immediate safety concern or life-threatening emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. In the United States, call or text 988 for crisis support.

Frequently asked questions

Is DBT the same as CBT?
DBT developed from CBT but places additional emphasis on acceptance, mindfulness, emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Does MRC provide comprehensive DBT?
The current MRC mental-health page describes DBT skills. Confirm the exact program format before publishing or promising comprehensive DBT.

Who may benefit from DBT skills?
People who struggle with emotional intensity, impulsive coping, conflict, distress, or maintaining helpful behaviors may benefit.

Can DBT skills support recovery from substance use?
Yes. Skills may help clients tolerate urges, regulate emotions, and respond to high-risk situations more effectively.

Are DBT skills taught in groups?
They can be taught in groups or individual sessions, depending on the treatment plan and program.