Emotion Dysregulation and Borderline Personality Disorder

DBT treatment to build emotional resilience and create a life worth living.

Understanding Borderline Personality Disorder

You Can Build a Life Worth Living

Living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) often means navigating emotion dysregulation, turbulent relationships, and a persistent sense of emptiness or identity confusion. Emotion dysregulation means experiencing emotions more intensely than others, having difficulty calming down once upset, acting impulsively when emotional, or feeling controlled by your feelings rather than able to manage them. When emotions feel overwhelming, out of control, or impossible to manage, it affects every area of your life—relationships, work, self-image, and daily functioning. The emotional pain can feel overwhelming, and patterns of behavior that once helped you cope may now create more problems. At Summit Psychotherapy Center, we understand BPD from both a clinical and compassionate perspective. Our doctoral-level clinicians are extensively trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)—the gold-standard treatment for BPD and emotion dysregulation—through Stanford University’s Comprehensive DBT Program. We don’t see BPD as a life sentence. With the right treatment, you can learn to regulate your emotions, improve your relationships, reduce self-destructive behaviors, respond effectively instead of impulsively, and build a life that feels meaningful and worth living.

What is Borderline Personality?

Understanding BPD

Borderline Personality is a mental health condition characterized by difficulties with emotion regulation, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and impulsive behaviors. BPD often develops in the context of invalidating environments, trauma, or biological vulnerabilities. It’s not your fault, and it doesn’t define who you are—it’s a pattern of learned survival strategies that may no longer work for you. With effective treatment, you have to power to change that can change the ways you cope so that you can not only survive, but thrive!

BPD Affects Multiple Areas of Life:

Emotional Intensity

Emotions that feel overwhelming, rapid mood shifts, difficulty calming down

Relationships

Fear of abandonment, intense and unstable relationships, difficulty trusting others

Self-Image

Uncertainty about who you are, feelings of emptiness, shifting goals and values

Impulsive Behaviors

Self-harm, substance use, risky behaviors, spending, binge eating

Chronic Emptiness

Persistent feelings of being hollow or incomplete

What is Emotion Dysregulation?

When Emotions Feel Hard to Manage

Emotion dysregulation refers to difficulty managing emotional responses—such as experiencing emotions very intensely, having trouble calming down, or reacting impulsively when feeling upset. When emotions rise quickly and feel overwhelming, it can be hard to pause, think clearly, or respond in ways that align with your values.

Emotion dysregulation often develops in the context of trauma, chronic stress, invalidating environments, or biological sensitivities. Importantly, it can occur even without a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and is commonly present in conditions such as PTSD, anxiety disorders, depression, and other trauma-related concerns.

Emotion dysregulation is not a character flaw or personal failure—it’s a pattern of responding that makes sense given past experiences. With the right support and skills, it’s possible to build greater emotional balance, reduce reactivity, and respond to difficult situations more effectively.

Common Patterns in Emotion Dysregulation:

Emotional Intensity

Experiencing emotions more strongly than others in similar situations

Slow Return to Baseline

Taking a long time to calm down after getting upset

Impulsive Actions

Acting on emotions without thinking through consequences

Mood Reactivity

Emotions shifting rapidly in response to events

Difficulty Identifying Emotions

Not knowing what you’re feeling or why

Emotional Avoidance

Trying to escape or suppress feelings, which often backfires
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Signs and Symptoms

Common Symptoms of BPD and Emotion Dysregulation

BPD symptoms can vary, but commonly include:
Intense emotions that feel overwhelming or unbearable
Difficulty calming yourself down once upset
Acting impulsively when emotional (self-harm, substance use, spending, etc.)
Feeling emotionally numb or disconnected
Mood swings that feel unpredictable
Difficulty identifying or describing emotions
Feeling controlled by your emotions
Intense fear of abandonment or rejection
Relationships affected by emotional reactions, contributing to instability
Unstable self-image or sense of identity
Impulsive, self-destructive behaviors when overwhelmed
Recurrent suicidal thoughts or self-harm
Rapidly shifting moods (lasting hours to days)
Chronic feelings of emptiness
Intense, inappropriate anger or difficulty controlling anger
Stress-related paranoia or dissociation
Black-and-white thinking about self and others
Difficulty regulating emotions
Feeling misunderstood or invalidated by others
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Evidence-Based DBT Treatment

DBT: The Gold-Standard Treatment for BPD

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is the most effective evidence-based treatment for BPD. Our team brings Stanford-level DBT expertise:

DBT Skills Training

Mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness

Individual DBT Therapy

One-on-one sessions focused on your specific goals and challenges

DBT-Prolonged Exposure (DBT-PE)

Combined approach for comorbid PTSD and BPD/emotion dysregulation

DBT for Complex PTSD (DBT-PTSD)

Integrated treatment for complex trauma, dissociation, and relationship difficulties

Trauma-Focused DBT Skills Group

Learn skills to address emotions and sequelae related to trauma

DBT for Couples and Families

Skills based approach for understanding relationship patterns and improving communication and collaboration

DBT Consultation Team

Your provider meets with a team of DBT clinicians weekly to make sure they are providing you the best possible care.

Acceptance and Change

Balancing validation with active skill-building

What to Expect in DBT Treatment

Your Path to Building a Life Worth Living

Comprehensive Assessment

We start by understanding your unique challenges, goals, and treatment history. This collaborative assessment helps us create a personalized DBT treatment plan.

DBT Skills Training

You’ll learn practical skills in four key areas: mindfulness (being present), distress tolerance (surviving crises), emotion regulation (managing feelings), and interpersonal effectiveness (improving relationships). These skills become tools you use daily. These skills can be taught individually or in our Trauma-Focused DBT Skills Group.

Individual DBT Therapy

Weekly individual sessions help you apply DBT skills to your specific life challenges, reduce harmful behaviors, and work toward your goals. Your therapist becomes your coach in building the life you want.

Building a Life Worth Living

DBT isn’t just about reducing symptoms—it’s about creating a life that feels meaningful, fulfilling, and worth living. We help you identify your values and take steps toward what matters most to you.

Why Choose Summit for BPD Treatment?

Stanford-Trained DBT Experts

Our team brings exceptional DBT expertise from Stanford University’s Comprehensive DBT Program—a leading DBT training center. Our clinicians are foundationally trained in Comprehensive DBT, founding members of Stanford’s DBT Trauma Services Team, and specialists in treating BPD with co-occurring trauma, substance use, and relationship difficulties. We understand that emotion dysregulation often has roots in trauma or invalidating experiences—we address both the skills deficits and the underlying pain. Our approach balances validation (your emotions make sense given your experiences) with change (you can learn new ways of responding). Our boutique practice ensures you receive personalized, specialized care from doctoral-level DBT experts who are deeply committed to helping you build a life worth living.

Ready to Build a Life Worth Living?

DBT can change your life. Our specialized team is here to support you in learning skills, understanding your emotions, reducing suffering, and creating the meaningful life you deserve. You don’t have to do this alone.
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