Can DBT Help My Family?
DBT for Families:
People who have difficulty regulating emotions often hope to improve important relationships in their lives including parents, children, friends, and work colleagues. Learning DBT Skills and its strategies can improve your life and the lives of these important people. As part of services at San Jose DBT, we encourage clients to involve their families in learning skills in order to improve communication, reduce arguments and misunderstandings, and increase closeness and intimacy. At San Jose DBT we will meet with a client’s family members if the client desires and if it can help treatment. We also have a network of DBT Therapists who can see your family members in separate skills training sessions.
Who Benefits:
- Family members (e.g. parents/step-parents, siblings/step-siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles)
- Partners (e.g. spouses, girlfriends, boyfriends)
- Friends (e.g. best friends, roommates, close colleagues)
For Parents, partners, and siblings whose loved one is in a comprehensive DBT program separate individualized sessions can help improve coping abilities by teaching family members the same DBT skills that their loved ones learn and use. In addition, These sessions also help family members understand the cycle of reactivity that can occur and how to change it!!
These individual sessions can be conducted by telephone or video with members of the family who are physically located in California. These coaching and consulting sessions teach “the language” of DBT, and behavioral problem solving which can facilitate a better understanding of their loved ones and how to support them. We teach family members:
- The biosocial model of emotion regulation disorders
- Education about DBT and how it works
- Emotion Regulation Skills
- Validation skills
- How to set realistic expectations for loved ones and yourself
- How to more effectively manage the family environment and crises that may arise
- How to observe your own limits
Call today at (408) 893-4032 for more information about how DBT skills can help your family