Lauren Pellizzi LLC

Specialized OCD & Anxiety Treatment

Anxiety Therapy Red Bank

Areas of Specialty

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

DBT is a form of psychotherapy that connects cognitive and behavioral methods as an approach to coping with painful emotions.  The focus of this therapy is usually on individuals who react to emotional circumstances with extreme behaviors.  The term "dialectical" means a synthesis or integration of opposites. The primary dialectic within DBT is between the seemingly opposite strategies of acceptance and change. For example, DBT therapists accept clients as they are while also acknowledging that they need to change in order to reach their goals. In addition, all of the skills and strategies taught in DBT are balanced in terms of acceptance and change. For example, the four skills modules include two sets of acceptance-oriented skills (mindfulness and distress tolerance) and two sets of change-oriented skills (emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness).


DBT includes four sets of behavioral skills:​
Mindfulness: the practice of being fully aware and present in this one moment
Distress Tolerance: how to tolerate pain in difficult situations, not change it
Interpersonal Effectiveness: how to ask for what you want and say no while maintaining self-respect and relationships with others
Emotion Regulation: how to change emotions that you want to change