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Does DBT Work? by Leif E. Greenz

Does DBT Work? Spilling tea on Marsha Linehan and Dialectical Behavior Therapy by Leif E. Greenz

*** This is so insightful! As usual, I enjoy exploring the other side of the story and W O W she managed to say what has been on my mind but I tak berani cakap sebab I'm not a healthcare professional. DISCLAIMER: IF YOU HAVE BPD AND NOT STABLE MAYBE JANGAN TENGOK DULU. ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: I find DBT quite useful for certain issues but memang ada some skills yang I rasa... sumpah lah kau belajar tinggi... ini suggestion yang kau bagi? Anyway, if you're psych related health care professionals, please tengok! – arlinabanana***

This is a video I've been wanting to record basically. It's a video that I'm kind of scared to make because it's controversial and it goes against something that's become very popular within the field of psychology and that is DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy).

DBT was founded in the 1980s by Dr. Marsha Linehan who herself struggled with what she calls BPD. In the 60s I believe she was institutionalized for self-harm and suicidal ideation and so she created this program; DBT to help other people who are dealing with similar things. And from my understanding Marsha basically put together the program that worked for her. And the program that worked for her is a collage. It's a collage-different-skills from different traditions and psychotherapies that she basically just hodge-podge together and called her own. And if you watch Marsha talk in different videos, she'll freely admit to this as though it's no big deal that she simply took skills from different traditions such as Eastern mindfulness and distressed tolerance and mainly CBT skills. DBT is repackaged CBT which is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. And Marsha will freely admit that she took the skills that worked for her and repackaged them through her own system. Everything looks very uniform in a DBT book.

She basically made it so that everything fit within this module system. DBT is comprised of four modules. You have mindfulness, to stress tolerance, emotion regulation and interpersonal relationships. And none of this from my understanding or from what I can tell is original. Perhaps there are a few skills sprinkled here and there but really Marsha just pulled together component of different therapies that worked for her. That's where our first problem comes in.

Before I get further into this video, I just want to say I am a DBT graduate. I went through over a year of DBT many many hours of my life went to it. When you're in DBT, you go to an individual session for one hour per week. And you also go to group sessions for two and a half hours per week. And on top of that you're doing daily homework. So DBT becomes a huge part of your life. And anytime you're dedicating a huge chunk of your life to a program, there's going to be a little bit of indoctrination happening. Now that I look back at my own therapist, I can see that she was kind of indoctrinated.

And I've talked about this before but when you go to a center that specializes in one thing for example I was diagnosed as a borderline by a DBT specific center, you can damn well expect that you're going to be diagnosed with the one thing they like to diagnose people with and if not, they're probably not going to see you. But these DBT centers want to make money. There's not a whole lot of public information about how much money therapists make off of DBT but I saw one estimation which was that every time a new patient comes in the center makes $600. And that I'm positive that varies from place to place but DBT is a money-making machine and anytime money is involved, people's intentions are not necessarily the best.

DBT in my mind is built on a false premise and that is borderline personality disorder. And borderline personality disorder is... I think the most flawed diagnosis that is currently listed in DSM. It's the most sexist diagnosis and it's the most misunderstood. You can watch some of my videos about the difference between C-PTSD and BPD. And I also have a video about borderline stigma and how it relates to misogyny.