By now, many of you might have seen the opinion piece published recently in the New York Times about a man who struggled with depression and had been suicidal for a number of years before receiving DBT. If you haven’t seen it yet, I would definitely recommend that you check out this excellent and inspiring article: http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/opinionator/2015/05/16/no-longer-wanting-to-die/
Originally developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan throughout the 1980s, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) has brought hope to many people suffering from complex mental health problems. DBT is a compassionate treatment that uses the best of what we have in cognitive behavioral therapy, in combination with strategies to help people accept themselves, their thoughts, feelings, and histories. Dr. Linehan herself struggled with serious mental health problems when she was younger, so DBT has benefited from both real lived experience and the extensive science behind cognitive behavioural therapy. The treatment is both very effective and practical at the same time. In DBT, clients learn skills to tolerate overwhelming emotions, understand and regulate their emotions, deal more effectively with other people, and live in the present moment. In DBT programs, clients also see an individual therapist regularly, where therapy focuses on helping them reach important goals and reduce behaviours that get in the way of life worth living. DBT is also a team oriented treatment. A team of therapists meets weekly to determine how to continue to do the best work possible and to support one another.
Although this treatment works very well for many people, one major challenge is the fact that many people have a difficult time finding or affording DBT in their communities. In Canada, for example, public DBT oriented programs tend to have lengthy wait lists, often in excess of 12 months. If you are intensely suffering and in need of help, waiting 12 months for treatment might simply not be an option. To help address this problem, we are doing a research study (called the FASTER DBT Study) at Simon Fraser University, in collaboration with colleagues at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, to compare a 6-month version of DBT to a 12-month version of DBT. Often, in the research studies, DBT takes 12 months to complete. We are trying to figure out whether there are any differences in outcomes between six and 12 months of DBT. If 6 months is pretty much equivalent to 12 months, public DBT programs could reduce length without sacrificing effectiveness, resulting in smaller and shorter wait lists and reaching more people who need treatment. If it turns out that 12 months of treatment is better than 6 months, we could make the argument to public agencies that they should devote more resources to comprehensive, year long, DBT programs. This is the first study of its kind and will be one of the largest studies of DBT conducted to date. If you are interested in finding out more about this research, you’re welcome to contact my research coordinators at 778-782-8776 or chapman_lab@sfu.ca. -Alexander L. Chapman, Ph.D., R.Psych.