Читать книгу DBT For Dummies - Gillian Galen - Страница 36

The mode of treatment most frequently implemented in DBT is the skills group. There are various reasons for this. Pragmatically it’s easily implemented and structured. It can meet the needs of many patients because it teaches more than one patient at a time. It has a set curriculum, handouts, and homework, so it appears very much like a typical classroom setting. Further, many mental health settings don’t have enough DBT-trained staff to have every patient be assigned to an individual therapist, and in this context, a therapist working with a co-leader can, at a minimum, introduce a larger number of patients to the treatment. It’s important to note that there is strong evidence that the use of skills training alone is effective in helping patients with many of their mental health symptoms.

In this mode, patients focus on learning new skills in a classroom-like atmosphere. The skills are then enhanced through practice exercises, as well as generalized to other aspects of the patients’ personal lives by the assignment and review of homework. The specific skills that are taught are the four DBT skills modules: mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. The modules are typically taught over six weeks, although this can vary, depending on the needs of the patients and how quickly they learn the material. The specific skills are reviewed in depth in Part 3.

In a group meeting, the typical structure is once per week, lasting somewhere between two and two and a half hours. The first hour is devoted to a review of the homework assigned in the previous session, and the second hour is dedicated to the teaching of new skills. Homework is then assigned as the last task of the group.

Note: There are certain circumstances when skills are taught in individual sessions. For instance, a person may have work limitations that don’t allow them to participate at a particular time, or they may have language limitations or learning disorders that don’t allow them to keep up with the pace of teaching in a large group.