| Abstract: | Many individuals who meet criteria for borderline personality disorder have histories of childhood trauma that may have contributed to their difficulty regulating affect. Dialectical behavioral therapy focuses on helping these patients to regulate emotional states and achieve behavioral control in Stage 1 so they can tolerate therapy that is focused on trauma and emotional experiencing in a Stage 2 treatment. Although there are effective, empirically validated treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder and its subclinical presentation, there are also a significant number of patients who find these treatments difficult to tolerate. The author discusses coupling dialectical behavioral therapy, an evidence-based therapy, with internal family systems, a therapy that is both clinically promising and compatible with dialectical behavioral therapy, as a Stage 2 therapy for trauma patients who avoid other modes of treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved) |
