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DBT Skills

Practical skills for when emotions come on fast and hit hard.

Ask About DBT Skills

DBT Skills

The Four Skill Areas

Mindfulness

Notice

Paying attention to what is happening right now, without judging it.

Distress Tolerance

Survive

Getting through a crisis moment without making it worse.

Emotion Regulation

Steady

Understanding emotions and lowering how vulnerable you are to them.

Relationships

Ask

Asking for what you need and saying no while keeping your self-respect.

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How Tatiana Uses It

Skills Teaching, Not a Full Program

Dialectical behavior therapy holds two things at once: you are doing the best you can, and you can learn to do things differently. Tatiana draws on its skills as part of her eclectic approach. This is DBT skills teaching, not a full DBT program.

Building coping skills is central to her work, and these are some of the most concrete ones there are.

Skills-oriented work can be easier to picture through an ordinary difficult moment: receiving a message that upsets you, wanting to withdraw from someone, or struggling to say what you need. You can ask which skills might be relevant and how they would be introduced. It is also important to distinguish the use of DBT-informed skills from a comprehensive DBT program with a particular structure. This page does not establish that every component of such a program is offered here. Discuss the actual service format, availability, and fit with the practice before making decisions based on the name of an approach.

Questions about format matter here. Ask whether the available work is individual, group-based, or another arrangement, and whether any specific program components are offered. You may want to know how skills practice is discussed and how the approach relates to your existing care. The practice should clarify its actual scope rather than having you infer it from a general description. If you need a particular level or type of support, discuss that need directly before scheduling.

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Opposite Action

One Skill You Can Try

When an emotion does not fit the facts, or acting on it would hurt you, try doing the opposite of what it urges. Anxiety says avoid, so you approach something small. Shame says hide, so you tell one safe person. Anger says attack, so you step away gently and lower your voice.

It feels wrong at first, and the feeling may shift after the action does.