Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Treating Addiction

Day Treatment Program in Southborough and West Springfield, MA

 

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Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Treating Addiction

The path to healing from addiction is complex and unique to each individual client we see. At NorthStar Recovery Center, we know that clients must walk their own path to healing and that different types of therapeutic interventions can help along the way. We believe behavioral interventions are highly effective at building skills that prevent relapse. Therefore, we utilize dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), along with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), to help clients successfully adapt and stay sober. 

 

What Is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?

DBT is a form of psychotherapy or talk therapy that focuses on a person’s psychosocial challenges. This means that it specifically emphasizes emotional and social aspects. DBT was originally designed in the 1980s as a way to help clients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) or suicidal tendencies. In DBT, clients focus on validating and accepting uncomfortable feelings instead of avoiding or hiding them. Currently, DBT is effective as a therapeutic modality for addiction, substance use disorder, substance abuse, and many mental health challenges. 

WHO WE ARE

Northstar Recovery Center in Southborough, MA is made up of a team of experienced, dedicated, and compassionate addiction treatment professionals. We want to see our community heal from the effects of the opioid epidemic, alcohol addiction, and other substance use disorders.

As a form of talk therapy, clients can meet with a counselor individually. However, DBT can also be effective in a group format. In each session, clients dive into the challenges that the individual or individuals at hand are struggling with. During DBT for addiction, clients break down their stories with the help of a counselor. They begin to see patterns, gain clarity surrounding their feelings, and learn new ways of coping. In a group setting, clients work on specific emotional regulation skills, share their experiences, and learn from others. 

Why DBT Is So Effective in Addiction Recovery

Addiction and mental health are closely tied. At NorthStar Recovery Center, we know that this connection is important regardless of if an individual is struggling with a mental health disorder. This is due to the tie between emotions and choices. How a person feels changes their actions, and their actions change their feelings. However, the interaction between feelings and actions is not always helpful. 

Fortunately, in DBT, clients learn to create a healthy relationship with their emotions. As a result, are more able to make better choices for themselves. Essentially, by addressing the challenges caused by the connection between emotions and actions, clients can learn improved coping skills that support their sobriety. 

How DBT Supports Addiction Recovery at NorthStar Recovery Center

At NorthStar Recovery Center, we offer multiple types of therapeutic modalities. We find that DBT supports many of our clients in meeting their goals of sobriety, healing from substance use disorder, and building skills that support their sobriety. This is due to DBT being effective in improving emotional regulation, building resistance, reducing triggers, and decreasing feelings of isolation. 

The Role of DBT in Emotional Regulation

Being able to regulate emotions is a vital skill in the treatment of substance abuse. DBT offers an opportunity for clients to learn to manage their emotions rather than being managed by their emotions. As a result, clients are less likely to relapse due to emotional triggers and have the tools to successfully stay sober long-term. 

During DBT, multiple methods are used to improve emotional regulation. Mindfulness, the ability for a client to be aware of themselves and their feelings, provides clients insight into their internal landscapes. Through exercises, worksheets, and peer support, clients also practice methods of dispersing and shifting their feelings. These skills provide the building blocks to deal with strong and significant emotions when they arise, both in treatment and after. 

Building Resilience and Reducing Triggers

Emotions are part of life. Clients in treatment for substance abuse and mental health challenges struggle with emotions. While the specific feelings vary for each person, it is important for clients to grow resilience to strong emotions and learn about their specific triggers. 

Building resilience helps clients recover quicker and bounce back after they experience strong emotions. During DBT, clients learn to be mindful of how they feel and grow tolerance to distressing emotions. As a result, they are more able to be with strong feelings when they come up. 

In addition, clients in DBT identify triggers. This means that they consider what initially brought up the emotion. Each client has a unique set of triggers, and by becoming aware of them, they learn more about their own emotional patterns. This aids clients and provides them with the opportunity to reduce triggers in their lives, as well as more choices when it comes to how they react and interact with their emotions. As a result, DBT improves impulse control, helping clients to take the reins and make important changes.

Peer Support in Addiction Recovery

CBT is typically an individual therapy. However, DBT offers a unique blend of behavioral therapy and peer support. While clients receive the benefits of skills taught by DBT, they also get the additional benefit offered by working with their peers. 

Peer support is an important and helpful piece of substance abuse treatment. In peer support groups, in general, clients feel understood. Individuals begin to see that while addiction is a disease that feels isolating, they are not alone. In DBT group sessions, clients have the additional benefit of hearing the successes and failures of others. This helps clients learn from each other and see the skills being taught in DBT through the stories of their peers. 

Integrating DBT With Holistic Treatment at NorthStar Recovery Ranch

At NorthStar Recovery Center, we believe that each client we treat should be seen and treated as a person. We know that our clients cannot be “cured” by a cookie-cutter treatment plan. Instead, we offer uniquely integrated treatment plans. These plans are individualized and carefully adjusted to meet the needs of each specific client. 

DBT is an approach that is helpful and important in the healing journey for many of our clients. It helps clients to improve impulse control, manage strong emotions, decrease suicidal thoughts, and manage their mental health. However, we also know that DBT alone is not as successful as DBT in conjunction with other methods of treatment. Therefore, we integrate DBT as part of a holistic and carefully crafted treatment plan. 

A Whole-Person Approach to Healing

This approach does not apply only to DBT. While behavioral therapies are an important part of our treatment plans, we believe they do not work as effectively when the rest of the client is not cared for. Therefore, at NorthStar Recovery Center, we focus on a whole-person approach to healing. 

While we offer DBT and CBT as behavioral therapies, we also offer mediation and other holistic treatment modalities. Through our treatment programs, clients are treated as people, healing from the disease that is addiction, and therefore, learn how to live their lives free of addiction. 

Key Benefits of DBT for Individuals in Addiction Recovery

DBT, particularly when integrated with holistic treatment options, is highly valuable for individuals on their path to healing from substance abuse. Through DBT, clients build lasting changes, reduce their risk of relapse, and improve their relationships with themselves. In essence, DBT helps clients to make changes from the inside out. By changing their interactions with themselves, they also change how they respond to external aspects of their lives. 

Creating Lasting Change

Lasting change is vital when recovering from substance use disorder, as change is what helps individuals find lasting sobriety. However, change is hard. It is difficult to do for a short time and often more difficult to maintain it. 

DBT, however, can help. When clients go through DBT, they gain insight and awareness into their own feelings. They learn about their triggers, the depth of their feelings, and the reactions they have had in the past to these feelings. As a result, they learn how their emotions have impacted their challenges with substance abuse and their mental health. 

Then, in DBT, clients learn skills to change these reactions. This results in increased awareness and new skills, and clients change how they interact with their emotions. Externally, this might look like they have learned a new behavior. However, in reality, they have shifted how they respond and react. For this reason, DBT helps create lasting change. While it is something clients need to practice, the internal shifts become easier over time and eventually become a normal pattern and way of responding. 

Reducing the Risk of Relapse

Managing relapse risk is an important goal in addiction treatment. However, as a disease, addiction is notoriously difficult to reduce the risk of relapse. At NorthStar Recovery Center, we believe that every client can reduce their risk of relapse, and DBT can help. 

In DBT, clients identify triggers. These triggers can be a person, place, thought, or action. Triggers commonly cause clients to have a certain feeling and then pursue using drugs or alcohol. Strong emotions are particularly difficult for many clients, causing them to seek drugs or alcohol as a way to avoid the feeling. 

Once triggers are identified, DBT provides clients with other paths. As a result, clients can see other ways they can go when they have strong emotions. Essentially, DBT offers clients the skills for improved coping, helping them to reduce their risk of relapse and build a better life after treatment. 

Improving Relationships and Self-Worth

Addiction is a disease that is isolating. It increases anxiety, reduces mental health, and significantly diminishes relationships with others. As a result, many clients come to treatment feeling beat down, negative, and struggling. At NorthStar Recovery Center, we know how difficult this is, and we offer DBT as one avenue for rebuilding relationships and self-worth. 

Through DBT, clients build their awareness levels. This helps them to have a better sense of their own feelings and thoughts. In addition, they work with peers, listening and sharing their experiences. Both of these help clients to have improved relationships through improved communication skills and a better sense of who they are. 

Embrace Healing and Connection With DBT in Massachusetts

At NorthStar Recovery Center, clients are encouraged to embrace the journey of healing through DBT in Massachusetts. While DBT is not for every client, it is an essential part of treatment for many clients. In DBT, clients not only embrace healing but also learn to accept themselves, learn ways in which they can change, and take the reins in making these changes for themselves.  

Our Commitment to Your Recovery Journey

The most vital thing in treatment at NorthStar Recovery Center is the client. We at NorthStar Recovery recognize this and are committed to each individual’s recovery journey. Therefore, we design and implement a treatment plan that is individualized and adjusted to suit each client’s needs throughout treatment. 

A Supportive Community for True Recovery

DBT for substance abuse at NorthStar Recovery is one therapy that offers a supportive community. However, this is not unique to NorthStar Recovery Center’s DBT program. Regardless of the treatment, clients are offered a community of peers and counselors who strive to provide the assistance and care that will be most effective in helping them find the light in the darkness of addiction. 

If you are interested in learning more about DBT at NorthStar Recovery Center, we want to talk to you. Call us today at (888) 902-4234 to learn how you can take the first step to healing from addiction. 

Day Treatment Program in MA

Our day treatment programs, referred to by commercial insurers as a partial hospitalization program (PHP) or intensive outpatient program (IOP), are the highest level of health care offered at Northstar Recovery Center. This outpatient addiction treatment option encompasses comprehensive clinical health care and behavioral health therapy services. In the initial stages of addiction recovery, it's crucial to have robust support to navigate both the physical and emotional challenges that come with pursuing long-term sobriety.

Our dedicated team at Northstar Recovery Center, located in Southborough, MA, and West Springfield, MA, is committed to assisting you in establishing a solid foundation for a lifelong recovery from addiction to drugs and alcohol. Clients typically visit our outpatient addiction treatment center in Massachusetts each weekday for several hours, engaging in counseling sessions and other necessary interventions. This intensive outpatient therapy approach ensures a balanced and effective recovery process, tailored to individual needs within the framework of day treatment.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DAY TREATMENT PROGRAMS IN MA

Individual, Group, and Family Counseling in Massachusetts

Addiction thrives in isolation, which is why group counseling sessions are a foundational part of our addiction treatment services. In group sessions, you’ll gain perspective on your struggles with substance use disorder and can connect with others who understand your experiences.

Family counseling can help your loved ones understand the disease of addiction, navigate conflict, develop better coping tools, and build healthier relationships. In individual counseling sessions, you’ll be able to work through personal issues like past trauma with the help of experienced therapists at our alcohol and drug treatment centers. Improve your quality of life and pursue lifelong sobriety now.

Learn More About Addiction Counseling in Massachusetts