Mindfulness as taught in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy: A scoping review

A scoping review of 11 studies examined how teaching the mindfulness component of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) affects clinical outcomes. The studies used either mindfulness skills embedded in the full DBT-Skills programme or a stand-alone DBT-M module for clinical populations. Results showed that DBT-based mindfulness training increases self-reported mindfulness, particularly non-judgmental awareness, and improves psychological measures like attention. Increased mindfulness positively affected some clinical symptoms, including those of Borderline Personality Disorder. However, not all studies controlled for group effects, practice amount, or other DBT elements. More research is needed to identify the underlying mechanisms of change.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract This scoping review considers 11 studies that have focussed on the effect of teaching the mindfulness element of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) on clinical outcomes. These articles utilized either mindfulness skills as embedded into the full DBT‐Skills programme or a stand‐alone mindfulness skills module (DBT‐M), as treatment for clinical populations. The review of the research found that clinical application of mindfulness as taught in DBT leads to increases in self‐reported mindfulness—especially non‐judgemental awareness along with psychological measures that suggests an increase in mindfulness, for example, improved attention. The studies demonstrated that an increase in mindfulness had a positive effect on some clinical symptoms such as symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder. Not all of the studies controlled for the effect of group, amount of practice or other elements of DBT therapy. The findings suggest that more needs to be done to establish the underlying mechanisms of change when being taught mindfulness in DBT.