CBT vs DBT

What will work best for me?

CBT, also known as, "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy", is a psychotherapy that is designed to modify dysfunctional emotions, behaviors, and thoughts. Instead of probing childhood wounds like a typical Freudian psychoanalysis, CBT targets solutions by encouraging clients to challenge distorted cognitions and change patterns of behavior that are particularly destructive. The idea behind CBT is that the perceptions and thoughts one has influences their behavior, so if they can catch the distorted thoughts, they can also stop the destructive behaviors.

DBT, or, "Dialectical Behavioral Therapy", is a therapy that provides clients with certain skills that can manage painful emotions and decrease conflict in relationships. The 4 key areas of DBT are mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. 

DBT was first developed to treat BPD (borderline personality disorder). However, more recent research shows that DBT has also been used successfully to treat people experiencing things such as bulimia, depression, binge-eating, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and addiction. CBT can work for anyone, including children, adolescents, and adults. Evidence suggests that CBT can benefit numerous conditions, such as major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, PTSD, eating disorders, OCD, and several others. CBT treatments can consist of just a therapist, whereas DBT treatments typically consist of individual therapy sessions and DBT skills groups, where therapists teach a group class about the skills present in the 4 components of DBT.