How Dialectical Behavior Therapy Helps You Manage Intense Emotions

Sometimes, events catch us off guard, causing our emotions to become unmanageable.

However, that storm inside doesn’t need to take over your life. With a mental health therapy like Dialectical Behavior Therapy, you are offered concrete methods to handle those powerful emotions. 

DBT teaches you how to handle difficult emotions and encourages you to make better choices in your actions.

We'll explore this method for therapy and discover how it can make your feelings more manageable.

What Exactly Is DBT?

Psychologist Marsha Linehan first devised Dialectical Behavior Therapy to help individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder, but here's the surprising part: As it turns out, DBT is perfect for people needing to process, manage and thrive around their emotions.

It is basically emotional intelligence taken up a notch, only it’s backed by science.

DBT is fundamentally a therapy that centers on finding balance between two main things.

1. Acceptance (understanding and respecting your emotions as they feel to you)

2. Change (developing ways to handle emotions that benefit your mental and physical health)

This balance is what makes DBT so brilliant. You aren’t simply told to ignore your emotions and put them aside. 

Instead, you can understand what’s happening and address the problems positively.

The Four DBT Skills That Help You Emotionally

DBT doesn’t simply involve sharing a few tricks and then leaving you to it. It prepares you with what you need to stay emotionally strong. 

DBT’s use of these four key skills allows the therapy to work well.

1. Mindfulness

Mindfulness helps you figure out your emotions. It allows you to stay conscious of the things happening around you—like the comfort of your coffee and noise coming from outside. 

Whenever your emotions reach full strength, mindfulness reminds you they won’t always feel that intense. 

They are only temporary visitors.

2. Distress Tolerance

Have you ever wanted to get away from some very powerful feelings? 

You will learn to accept uncomfortable feelings and keep your problems from becoming worse through distress tolerance.

Rather than getting worked up when you are upset, try breathing deeply or applying water to your face.

(Here’s a bonus tip: this technique works remarkably well!)

3. Emotion Regulation

It is the special part that makes DBT so effective. 

You should get to know your moods and try to make those meltdowns less common and less intense. 

For example, you can label your feelings (“I’m simply frustrated”) and focus on eating well, getting enough rest and moving your body for better control over your emotions.

4. Interpersonal Effectiveness

Have you ever experienced the urge to handle a conflict differently after it’s already over on your end? 

DBT teaches you how to support your needs and help maintain healthy relationships. 

If you need to speak up to your friend or request a raise at your job, you need to learn how to be both confident and kind.

How Dialectical Behavior Therapy Helps You Manage Intense Emotions

It’s one thing to know that DBT exists. It’s another to grasp how it fundamentally changes how we manage intense emotions. 

Here's what makes it work:

1. Creates Space Between Feeling and Reacting

   
   

   Rather than responding immediately when angry or hurt, DBT teaches you to slow down and consider your actions. Because of that space, you have time to think, “What would my best self do?”

   
   

2. Helps You Embrace, Rather Than Fear, Your Feelings

   
   

   People in society are often taught to think of strong emotions as “bad” and something we have to improve. DBT goes against that way of thinking. Not feeling good now and then is normal and it’s nothing you need to feel bad about. DBT wants you to experience your emotions without being too hard on yourself.

   
   

3. Allows You to Feel in Control

   
   

   One strength of DBT is that you learn that feelings might arise, but you help shape how you respond to them. Slowly, people begin to act like they have agency or control, without trying.

   
   

4. Makes Emotional Self-Care a Habit

   
   

   Sticking with DBT exercises will help you appreciate self-care as necessary, rather than indulgent. Following DBT exercises will make you value self-care as a need, not just as something you sometimes enjoy. Learning Dialectical Behavior Therapy, you have a toolkit that can aid you when you venture outside, write or make nourishing meals to stay balanced.

   
   

Is DBT Just for "Big Feelings"?

Absolutely not! Originally, DBT was developed to treat people with noticeable problems controlling their emotions, but now it is also used in therapy everywhere for many emotional issues. 

• Having trouble dealing with a major change in life? 

• Feeling like you’re suffering from work burnout? 

• Managing relationships within your family? 

You can rely on DBT.

DBT at Yapriah Life Healing

Yapriah Life & Healing sees life’s growth as much like how we tend to a garden. Once in a while, it takes care and attention to help you grow in the right direction. 

We use our DBT-based methods to guide you in finding hope, feeling stable and becoming whole so you can grow emotionally.

Our licensed clinicians offer you kind and customized support wherever you are in the healing process. 

Whether you are dealing with strong emotions or difficulties with people or just want to feel more secure, we are happy to help you grow.

If you’ve had enough of struggling with your feelings and are prepared to deal with them, having a DBT session with one of our experienced therapists may help. 

Being guided correctly will always lead to better emotional development.

Schedule an appointment today.

FAQs About DBT and Emotional Regulation

What methods does DBT use to control emotions?

It helps people use mindfulness, identify their feelings, and do breathing exercises so they don’t respond suddenly when they are emotional.

What is the DBT way of managing emotions?

DBT pushes you to recognize your feelings and, at the same time, learn new, healthier reactions. Learning distress tolerance and mindfulness is very important.

How does dialectical behavioral therapy treat emotions?

When using Dialectical Behavior Therapy, someone can regulate their intense emotions with:

• Mindfulness

• Stress control

• Learning how to regulate emotions and improving relationships with others

How do you express emotions in DBT?

DBT teaches you to feel your emotions, validate them and then share them with others healthily.