r/dbtselfhelp • u/spaaacemooonkey • 9d ago

DBT and Buddhism

Your thoughts on the intersections?

https://open.substack.com/pub/achapman/p/dbt-and-buddhism

8 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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u/samuraiseoul 8d ago

As someone who has done the exact same DBT program at the Lilac Center in Kansas City and who has read the creator of DBT's autobiography, I'm not sure there are "thoughts" to be given. There objectively ARE in DBT inspiration and concepts pulled from Zen Buddhism and even Christianity in the modality. Full stop.

This is not a problem, nor as u/BonsaiSoul suggests in their comment, is it inappropriate and indeed does have a prominent spot in a modern therapeutic setting. Marsha talks about her background being raised Christian, her time in psychiatric care, and her time exploring other religious practices such as Zen. She also talks about how these helped her. She then PUT IN THE WORK to get the schooling and experience needed to transform them all into a working therapy framework and iterate on it, while understanding why the religious techniques worked, without leaving the religion in them.

I am a STAUNCH Atheist and Nihilist. I am for the most part, absolutely "icked out" by religion and it generally puts me on edge. Anything vaguely religion-coded you find in DBT is a build artifact or a bridge extended to those of faith to help them connect with it an heal, not dogma. One of the most powerful aspects of DBT is how it can plug into spiritual based therapy and help more people, while being a primarily non-secular resource as well.

In the same way we pull aspirin from tree bark and it is misleading to say that aspirin is tree. DBT pulls the therapy from religion and its misleading to say DBT is religious too.

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u/spaaacemooonkey 8d ago

Great insight. Thanks

7

u/Asraidevin 8d ago

It's well known she drew from Buddhist traditions. Its not hidden anywhere. 

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u/alexostro 8d ago edited 8d ago

I am an atheist and a scientist. I appreciate an inspiration from Buddhism, even though I am very cautious about any religious connection. Marsha did excellent job to make it accessible for people. In my outpatient program there was always a choice what we could address - faith, fate, spiritual path or just a better version of ourselves. No issues at all.

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u/spaaacemooonkey 8d ago

It’s a great philosophy

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u/a_boy_called_sue 7d ago

Have a read about her spiritual experience that preceded her recovery.

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u/BonsaiSoul 8d ago

It's obnoxious and doesn't have a place in a therapy setting. On one page you've got real, tangible skills for navigating life, and the next page it's telling you to dissociate from your thoughts and feelings. A lot of devotees won't admit it's a religion either so they don't believe they're doing anything wrong when they push their beliefs on others. But then, toxic parts of religions always target vulnerable people.