Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Program for Children
What is Child DBT?
Is your child struggling with strong emotions? If your child gets upset quickly, stays upset longer, and has a harder time calming down than other kids, DBT for Children (DBT-C) can help.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Children (DBT-C) is a therapeutic approach that has been found to be effective for children who struggle with emotional and behavioral dysregulation. That is, children with big, strong emotions and difficulty controlling their behavior.
DBT-C is based on the premise that children who struggle with emotional regulation often lack the skills to cope with intense emotions and manage their behavior effectively. DBT-C aims to teach these children and their families the skills they need to regulate their emotions and behavior, and to improve their relationships and overall quality of life.
Our DBT program for children includes individual DBT training sessions for parents and individual child appointments. Our child-DBT therapists are experienced at helping parents learn to apply DBT skills within the home. Read on to learn more about our DBT program for children.
Front Range Treatment Center is a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Program.™
Our DBT program for children teaches parents how to implement a DBT training program in your own home.
How do I know if DBT is right for my child?
Does your child experience intense emotions they don’t seem to be able to control? Are they often upset and you don’t understand why? Are they aggressive, and try to hurt you, themselves, or their siblings? Are they disrespectful or disobedient? Is your family suffering because of your child’s difficult-to-control behavior?
When nothing has worked, it’s time to try a new approach.
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If your child is struggling with any of these specific issues, DBT for children may be beneficial:
Intense emotions or tantrums
Screaming, growling, or spitting
Difficulty controlling emotions
Poor social skills or difficulty forming friendships
Disobedient or disrespectful behavior
Dangerous or risky behavior
Self-harm (such as hitting themselves, or banging their heads on the floor or wall)
A history of suicidal gestures, attempts, or thoughts
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Here are several common mental health problems where DBT-C can help”
Anxiety Disorders: This can include generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety, social anxiety, and specific phobias. Children may worry excessively about school, friends, family, or even global events.
Depression and Mood Disorders: While less common than anxiety, children can experience mood disorders like depression. Symptoms might include persistent feelings of sadness, loss of interest in activities, and changes in appetite or sleep.
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD): This disorder is marked by a consistent pattern of angry or irritable moods, argumentative behavior, and defiance towards authority figures like parents and teachers.
Conduct Disorders: More severe than ODD, conduct disorders involve a pattern of aggressive, deceitful, or destructive behavior.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Children with OCD may have repeated, persistent thoughts (obsessions) and feel compelled to perform certain rituals or routines (compulsions).
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): This can develop after a child has been exposed to a traumatic event. Symptoms may include reliving the trauma, avoidance of anything related to the trauma, and increased arousal symptoms like irritability.
Eating Disorders: Though less common in children under 12, some may develop signs of eating disorders, such as Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa.
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According to the biosocial model, which is a theoretical framework within dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), emotion dysregulation problems in children are believed to originate from a combination of biological vulnerabilities and an invalidating social environment. Here's an overview of how the biosocial model explains the development of emotion dysregulation in children:
Biological Vulnerabilities: Some children may have inherent biological vulnerabilities that predispose them to difficulties in regulating their emotions effectively. These vulnerabilities can include heightened emotional sensitivity, intense emotional reactions, or a tendency to experience emotions more strongly than their peers.
The Social Environment: The biosocial model emphasizes the impact of the child's social environment, particularly in terms of emotional validation. Not sure what this means? Our DBT therapist can help.
Transactional Processes: The biosocial model proposes that the interaction between a child's biological vulnerabilities and the social environment leads to a transactional process that amplifies emotion dysregulation. For example, a child with heightened emotional sensitivity may experience intense emotional reactions, which may be met with reactions from caregivers. This further reinforces the child's belief that their emotions are invalid, exacerbating their struggles with emotion regulation.
Skill Deficits: Over time, children who experience a combination of biological vulnerabilities and an invalidating social environment may develop skill deficits in emotion regulation. They may lack the necessary strategies and coping mechanisms to effectively manage and regulate their emotions, leading to ongoing difficulties in emotional self-regulation.
The biosocial model underscores the importance of addressing both biological vulnerabilities and the social environment in the treatment and support of children with emotion dysregulation problems. It suggests that interventions should focus on teaching skills for emotion regulation while also working to create a validating and supportive social context to foster emotional well-being and adaptive functioning.
Child DBT Program Components
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Parent DBT Training
Parent training in DBT-C helps parents implement a DBT training program at home. This typically involves a combination of education, skills training, and problem-solving.
Parents learn about the principles of DBT and how they can apply these principles in their interactions with their child. They learn strategies for communicating with their child effectively, setting boundaries, and promoting healthy behaviors.
These meetings also provide an opportunity for parents to discuss their concerns, ask questions, and receive guidance on implementing DBT-C strategies at home. The therapist may offer feedback, troubleshoot challenges, and offer support to parents in their role as primary caregivers.
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Child Sessions
In these individual sessions, children meet with a DBT therapist. These appointments begin after a period of parent coaching. Your child DBT therapist will determine how often child meetings need to occur. The purpose of these sessions is to offer support, skills coaching, and assessment.
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Parent Therapy (optional)
An optional add-on service, individual therapy for parents is available when you need extra support, or assistance in pursuing your personal goals.
Sometimes, this component might be required in order for Child DBT to be successful. If a parent is struggling, children can tell. This would be completed with a different therapist than your child DBT trainer.
How can DBT Help My Child?
In DBT-C, the focus is on changing the environment to support changes in the child, in their behavior, and their experience and expression of emotion. This leads to greater emotional and behavior control, allowing children to make better choices. DBT-C has been found to be effective for a range of emotional and behavioral difficulties in children and adolescents.
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It can be very painful to watch your child engage in harmful, disrespectful, aggressive, or otherwise concerning behaviors. A cornerstone goal of DBT is behavioral control. With child DBT, parents learn how to develop and implement a behavior training program to shape and extinguish target behaviors.
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Some children are just more prone to feeling their emotions more intensely. In Child DBT, parents will learn how to help their children regulate their emotions, calm down quicker, and not engage in ineffective behaviors when upset. Children who struggle with emotional dysregulation often lack the skills to identify and manage their emotions in a healthy way. DBT teaches children how to identify their emotions, express them in a constructive way, and manage them when they become overwhelming. This can help children feel more in control of their emotions and behavior.
In our child DBT program, children are taught DBT skills through their parents. Given how much repetition is required for children, it is much more efficient to teach parents some basic DBT skills, so they can model those skills for their children in a structured manner. DBT skills offer children more effective ways of responding to negative emotions, allowing them to respond in new and better ways, and reducing outbursts.
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DBT has been found to be effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents. By teaching children how to regulate their emotions, DBT can help them manage the symptoms of these conditions. DBT can help children improve their overall quality of life by teaching them skills to regulate their emotions and behavior, manage stress, and prevent depression and anxiety from firmly taking hold.
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Interpersonal effectiveness skills can help children build healthy relationships and communicate effectively with others. Children learn how to set boundaries, say no, and resolve conflicts in a constructive way. This can improve their relationships with peers, family members, and other important people in their lives.
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For parents, self-harm and suicidal behaviors represent some of the most concerning behaviors a child can exhibit, and are serious symptoms that should not be ignored. DBT has been found to be effective in reducing self-harm and suicidal behaviors in children and adolescents. By teaching children how to tolerate distressing situations without engaging in self-destructive behaviors, DBT can help prevent these harmful behaviors.