DBT was built for people who feel everything intensely. Four skill modules — mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness — give you concrete moves for moments when willpower alone is not enough.
What DBT helps with
- Borderline personality traits
- Self-harm urges
- Suicidal ideation
- Emotional dysregulation
- Bulimia & binge eating
- PTSD
- Chronic anger
How DBT works
- 1Learn mindfulness as the foundation skill — Wise Mind over emotion mind or reason mind.
- 2Use distress-tolerance skills (TIPP, STOP, ACCEPTS) to get through a crisis without self-harm.
- 3Apply emotion-regulation skills to lower vulnerability to extreme emotion across the week.
- 4Practise interpersonal-effectiveness skills (DEAR MAN, GIVE, FAST) to ask, refuse and protect relationships.
Core techniques
- TIPP for crisis
- STOP & ACCEPTS
- Wise Mind
- DEAR MAN
- Opposite action
- Radical acceptance
- Chain analysis
DBT FAQs
Who is DBT for?
DBT was developed for chronic self-harm and borderline personality traits, but the skills are now used for emotional dysregulation, eating disorders, PTSD and chronic anger across many populations.
What is the difference between DBT and CBT?
DBT is a specialised offshoot of CBT that adds a dialectical philosophy (acceptance and change at once) and four explicit skill modules. CBT is more thought-focused; DBT is more skill-focused under high emotion.
Can DBT skills help if I don't have a diagnosis?
Yes. TIPP, STOP, opposite action and radical acceptance are useful for anyone who occasionally gets hijacked by anger, panic, urges or shame — diagnosis or not.
Can I try a DBT skill right now?
Yes. Open the free chat and ask for a TIPP walkthrough — the AI will guide you through Temperature, Intense exercise, Paced breathing and Paired muscle relaxation in under five minutes.
Start DBT today — three ways
- · Free 24×7 AI Psychologist — practise DBT techniques anonymously, in 100+ languages.
- · DBT Mastery in 30 Days — for clinicians, counsellors and trainees, with AI mock-client sessions and a capstone certificate.
- · Book Dr. Nitnem Singh Sodhi for an online or in-person consult at Apollo Clinics, Lucknow / Gorakhpur.