top of page

DBT - Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

When you’ve been through trauma, your nervous system often learns to stay on high alert: scanning for danger, bracing for overwhelm, or shutting down to get through the day. You might feel like your emotions hit fast and hard, or that you’re constantly managing waves of anxiety, shame, anger, numbness or exhaustion.

 

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a structured, skills-based therapy that helps you build steadiness from the inside out. DBT offers practical tools to regulate emotions, tolerate distress, improve relationships, and make choices that align with the life you want, even when things feel intense.

 

At Making Space Psychotherapy, we use DBT through a trauma-focused lens, supporting healing that’s not just about coping, but about creating more safety, self-trust, and inner stability over time.

 

DBT doesn’t ask you to “just calm down” or “think positive.” It helps you build real skills for emotional safety and nervous system steadiness while honouring the fact that your reactions often have a history.

​

DBT for Trauma: Why It Helps

Trauma can impact how we relate to emotions, relationships, and even our own sense of self. Many people learn to survive by pushing through, disconnecting, people-pleasing, shutting down, or staying constantly “on.” These patterns often make sense, they are adaptive responses to experiences that were too much, too soon, or too alone.

 

DBT can help you:

  • Feel less emotionally overwhelmed or reactive

  • Reduce cycles of shutdown, avoidance, or spiralling

  • Learn tools to move through distress without losing yourself

  • Build healthier boundaries and more secure relationships

  • Create stability when your internal world feels chaotic

  • Respond to triggers with more choice and less urgency

​

The Four Core DBT Skill Areas

DBT skills are practical, learnable, and meant to be used in real life, especially when things feel hard.

 

Mindfulness

Mindfulness helps you slow down and notice what’s happening inside you without getting pulled under by it. It supports presence, clarity, and the ability to respond instead of react.

 

Distress Tolerance

These skills help you get through intense moments without making things worse. They’re especially helpful when you feel triggered, flooded, panicked, or emotionally shut down.

 

Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation skills help you understand emotions, reduce emotional vulnerability, and build more internal stability so your feelings don’t have to run the whole show.

 

Interpersonal Effectiveness

These tools help you communicate clearly, set boundaries, manage conflict, and protect your self-respect without over-explaining, collapsing, or going into “fight or flight” in relationships.

 

What DBT Therapy Can Look Like

DBT can be used in different ways depending on your needs and goals.

 

At Making Space Psychotherapy, DBT is often integrated into individual therapy in a way that feels supportive and sustainable, especially for trauma recovery.

 

In sessions, you can expect:

  • A steady, structured approach that still feels human and relational

  • Skills you can use immediately (not just insight)

  • Support understanding why your nervous system responds the way it does

  • A pace that respects your capacity — not pushing you into overwhelm

  • Tools that build long-term resilience, not short-term suppression

 

For some clients, DBT becomes the foundation for deeper trauma work later. For others, DBT is the work building stability, emotional safety, and relationship strength as the main focus.

 

Is DBT Right for You?

DBT may be a good fit if you:

  • Feel easily overwhelmed by emotions

  • Struggle with shutdown, avoidance, or spiralling

  • Find relationships triggering or exhausting

  • Want tools for boundaries, communication, and self-trust

  • Are tired of “coping” and want something that creates real change

  • Want trauma therapy that is both compassionate and practical

 

You don’t need to be in crisis to benefit from DBT. Many people choose DBT because they’re ready for more stability, more clarity, and a stronger relationship with themselves.

 

Start DBT-Informed Trauma Therapy

If you’re looking for support that helps you regulate, rebuild trust in yourself, and move forward with more steadiness, we’re here.

​

Our Care Team can help match you with a therapist who offers DBT-informed therapy that fits your goals and needs.

​

bottom of page