Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Emotional Overwhelm, Reactivity, and Burnout.
Practical, Nervous-System-Informed Support When Emotions Feel Intense or Hard to Manage
What Is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a therapy approach designed to help people navigate intense emotions, stress, and reactivity, especially when emotions feel fast, overwhelming, or hard to regulate.
At its core, DBT holds two truths at the same time:
You’re doing the best you can.
And things can change.
DBT offers practical tools to help you stay grounded, tolerate distress, regulate emotions, and respond more intentionally, without asking you to ignore what you’re feeling or “just calm down.”
How DBT Is Different From Traditional Talk Therapy
Many people already understand why they struggle.
What they’re missing is support in the moment emotions take over.
DBT focuses on:
what happens when your nervous system is overwhelmed
how emotions escalate quickly
how to interrupt patterns before they spiral
how to cope without shutting down, exploding, or abandoning yourself
Rather than only processing experiences after the fact, DBT helps you build real-time skills for moments when things feel like too much.
Why DBT Is Especially Helpful for Emotional Overwhelm
Emotional overwhelm doesn’t always look dramatic.
Often it shows up as:
snapping or saying things you regret
shutting down or going numb
feeling flooded and unable to think clearly
cycling between “holding it together” and crashing
feeling exhausted by your own reactions
DBT helps you slow these moments down, understand what your nervous system needs, and respond with more steadiness and choice.
This can be especially supportive during:
parenting stress or postpartum transitions
high-pressure caregiving roles
relationship conflict
burnout or compassion fatigue
periods of emotional depletion or life transition
DBT skills are woven throughout my work as a way to support regulation and stability — not as rigid rules, but as flexible tools that meet you where you are.
What DBT Helps With
DBT can be especially helpful if you experience:
emotional reactivity or feeling “on edge”
difficulty managing stress or frustration
patterns of shutdown, avoidance, or overwhelm
burnout from constantly holding things together
parenting or relationship moments that escalate quickly
a sense that emotions take over before you can think
Rather than judging or suppressing emotions, DBT helps you build tolerance, regulate more effectively, and stay present, even when things are hard.
What Sessions Are Like
DBT-informed sessions are:
collaborative and practical
grounded in compassion and accountability
paced to support safety and nervous-system regulation
We may talk through recent situations, practice skills, or slow things down to notice what your body and emotions are doing in real time. The goal isn’t perfection, it’s building capacity and flexibility over time.
DBT isn’t a separate track or checklist.
It’s one of the ways I support emotional regulation, stability, and resilience in my work with individuals, parents, and couples navigating overwhelm and life transitions.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Frequently Asked Questions *
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No. DBT can be helpful anytime emotions feel intense, overwhelming, or hard to manage, not just during crisis.
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Skills are part of the work, but not the whole picture. We focus on how and when to use them in ways that actually support your nervous system.
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That’s very common. DBT isn’t about using skills perfectly in the heat of the moment. We focus on building familiarity and nervous-system capacity over time, so support is more accessible when stress is high, even if you don’t remember every step.
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DBT supports coping in the moment and creates space to understand emotional patterns more deeply, especially when used alongside relational and body-based work.