DBT House PDF

What is dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)?

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a type of psychotherapy, specifically a strain of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Renowned American psychologist Marsha M. Linehan developed it as a way for mental health professionals to tackle bipolar personality disorder and find ways to help manage it. Throughout the years, it has been used to treat depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and self-harming/suicidal behaviors and thoughts.

Core principles and beliefs of DBT

At the core of dialectical behavior therapy is dialectics. In short, dialectics is a way of reasoning that develops when two opposing arguments are pitted against each other through dialogue and come to a conclusion that considers what is true from both arguments.

In therapy, dialectics becomes an avenue for patients to find a healthy balance between their current realities and life changes, significant or small. DBT therapists teach clients skills related to mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness to aid this kind of reasoning.

These should help them live a fuller life, help them find stability when it comes to their mental health, understand their emotions and feelings, and explore various healthy ways of ensuring that they don’t succumb to their mental health issues.

Goals of this type of therapy

The goal of this type of therapy is to help individuals, whether children or adults, find it in them to live a sound and peaceful life where they can ward off distressing thoughts, healthily navigate themselves through distressing situations, accept changes without buckling under the potential pressures such changes can exert on them, help them build a support system, and help them maintain healthy relationships.

What is a DBT house?

The DBT house is a concept and exercise used by DBT therapists to help their patients/clients examine their emotions, their core values, goals and aspirations, coping strategies, and relationships. The house is a representation of a safe space where they can discuss all of these.

A typical DBT house will have the following components:

• The foundation: this represents the patient’s core values and beliefs
• The walls: these represent a patient’s boundaries and support systems
• The roof: these represent the people or things that protect the patient
• The chimney: these represent a patient’s coping mechanisms
• The front door: this represents a patient’s ability to let a person into their life
• The windows: these represent what their goals are as well as their perspectives on things
• The basement: these are the things that the patient usually hides
• First floor: this represents the things in their life they want to change
• Second floor: this represents the kinds of emotions and feelings they want to experience
• Third floor: this represents what they feel happy about or what they want to be happy about
• Fourth floor: this represents their view of what a perfect life is for them
• Billboard in the background: this represents anything that they’re proud of

All a person needs to do is fill all these out with drawings and text in any order they want!

What questions does this worksheet ask?

Since there are many blank spaces, here are questions that DBT house worksheets usually ask people to help them draw their DBT house:

• Foundation: What are your core values?
• Walls: Who supports you? Make sure that these are the people you truly count on.
• Roof: Who protects you and makes you feel safe?
• Chimney: How do you blow off steam/cope?
• Front door: How easy can you open up to people?
• Windows: What are your dreams and aspirations? How do you view certain things like what’s popular, what’s not popular, your hobbies, religion, societal norms, etc.?
• The basement: What do you usually hide from others?
• First floor: What aspects of your life would you like to change?
• Second floor: What feelings and emotions would you like to experience more?
• Third floor: What do you feel happy about? What do you want to feel happy about?
• Fourth floor: To you, what is a life worth living, and what does that look like for you?
• Billboard: What are you proud of?

The general instruction is to draw all these to fill the house. They can also write about them if they choose to or elaborate on their drawings during a DBT session.

How does our DBT House PDF template work?

We at Carepatron created a DBT house template that you can issue to your patients or answer for yourself! DBT therapists will often have the patient draw a house from scratch based on their instructions, but there’s a pre-drawn house for our template!

The person engaging with it will need to do two things:

• They need to draw things for each component by following the guide questions for the house portion.
• After the house portion, they will have a written portion to elaborate on their drawings.

People can tackle the DBT house however they want and in any order.

Benefits of using this DBT worksheet

Here are the benefits of using our printable DBT worksheet:

It’s a great way to get to know patients

It can’t be understated how difficult it is to get certain therapy patients to talk. It shouldn’t be surprising since talking about mental health issues is exceptionally touchy, especially if it involves trauma and other severe and highly personal things.

Therapists must establish rapport and trust with patients. Even if those have been established, their patients might still be shy or apprehensive about sharing things about themselves. Still, they need to do so to get the ball rolling. Worksheets can help immensely because if patients have difficulty articulating themselves through speech, they may do so through drawings and writing.

It can help patients understand how they feel.

Mental health problems can be so distressing that many people don’t want to think about them when they have the chance. This prevents them from creating distance to examine and interrogate how they feel. By having them engage with this worksheet, they will have the opportunity to finally think about how they’ve been feeling, what they want to change or what they can’t accept changing for now, what they’re proud of, who they can lean on, and what their goals are. They might gain insights and epiphanies about themselves through this worksheet.

DBT techniques that can help people engage with the DBT house concept

Here are techniques that can help people better understand the DBT house concept:

Distress tolerance

Distress tolerance is one of the most essential aspects of DBT. Distress tolerance is all about finding composure even when under pressure and distress. It’s also about coping healthily while under pressure and distress.

The first-floor section of our DBT house revolves around what the patient wants to change about themself. They can discuss how they behave and feel when under pressure and stress. Therapists can use this as a jumping point to teach distress tolerance skills and develop healthy and effective coping strategies.

Mindfulness

Thinking about personal issues can get overwhelming, but by practicing mindfulness, DBT patients can examine their thoughts without judgment or allowing their emotions to take over them completely. Doing so can help them draw what they need to draw when engaging with this worksheet and elaborate on their drawings during the writing portion and discussions with their DBT therapists.