If you follow celebrity news at all, then it’s likely that you know Selena Gomez is having a rough go of it right now.
Reportedly, she had an emotional breakdown of sorts — a panic attack, really — after a “tough few weeks” of being hospitalized twice for a low white blood cell count, a common side effect from the kidney transplant she received last year to aid in her lupus treatment, per People.
“She realized she needed to seek additional help for her ongoing emotional issues. She’s surrounded by close family and has a lot of support. She’s doing better now and is seeking treatment on the East Coast,” a source told People.
The treatment the singer is undergoing is called “dialectical behavioral therapy” and if you’re anything like me, those words put a big ol’ question mark on my forehead, so we did some digging.
Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a cognitive-behavioral treatment aiming to impart patients with a skill set for managing painful emotions and conflict in relationships.
It focuses on providing skills in four specific areas, according to psychcentral.com:
• Mindfulness: the ability to be present and accepting of the current moment
• Distress tolerance: tolerance of negative emotions, rather than escape
• Emotion regulation: strategies to manage intense emotions
• Interpersonal effectiveness: communicating with others assertively, while maintaining self-respect and positive relationships
Most beneficial to Gomez might be better skills to deal with distress, which she most likely experiences regularly with her health issues and celebrity status.
The actual DBT treatment process typically includes individual therapy as well as group sessions that put a patient’s newly-learned skills into practice. While there’s no cookie-cutter timeframe for DBT treatment – it is highly personal – the average length of treatment would be about a couple of hours per week for six months, according to the Delray Center for Healing.
And, as it turns out, there’s some local DBT treatment centers in Roxborough and South Jersey if you’re interested in the process.