Working With Trauma in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy: Literature Review

Abstract

Modern society sees that war is becoming a permanent phenomenon. The consequences of war are always injuries of a physical and mental nature. The article focuses on the experience of a traumatic personal experience. The main diagnostic criteria for making a diagnosis of trauma are highlighted. The aim of this review is to discuss the theoretical and empirical evidence that examines the potential effectiveness of dialectical-behavioral therapy in working with the traumatic experience of an individual, as a way of building a theoretical model of working with trauma in DBT. The author's model in working with trauma is considered, which is based on a dialectical-behavioral approach and contains the following components: balancing self-awareness, balancing consciousness, acceptance and actions of the individual, balancing with the help of adaptation, balancing thinking, balancing emotions, balancing relationships, harmonizing, and supporting the individual. In the theoretical and practical context, the essence of leading strategies in work with trauma is disclosed. The main dialectical contradiction of psychological trauma is the internal conflict between erasing everything from memory and the desire to share with someone.