Treatment for Emotional Intensity
What will therapy with CAMHS involve?
Following your assessment, you and your assessment clinician agreed that treatment for Emotional Intensity would be most helpful for you.
You will have been offered one of these treatments:
- Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
- DBT-informed intervention
You have been offered treatment for Emotional Intensity because you, your assessment clinician and family identified that you experience several of the following problems that are disrupting your life.
- Difficulty being aware of your own emotions, thoughts and urges in the moment - this might mean that you might not be aware of what is upsetting you before reacting and you might experience waves of emotions and be unsure how you go there so quickly or intensely.
- Difficulty staying focused and fully participating in the moment - you might find yourself worrying about the past and the future a lot.
- Not knowing what your goals are - you might feel unsure about who you are, what your values are and what's important to you.
- Emotional dysregulation - fast intense mood changes with little control - you might feel fine one minute and then experience a wave of anxiety, followed by shame, then move into anger very quickly or you might experience a steady negative emotional state.
- Impulsivity - you might act on urges without thinking of the consequences at the time, especially in times when emotions are heightened. This may mean you pose a risk to yourself or others.
- Difficulties in your relationships with others - you might struggle to maintain friendships, have frequent fall-outs with others and experience intense shifts in how you feel about people (one day they are amazing, another day you feel betrayed and angry and want to leave the relationship).
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is a talking therapy for those with significant difficulties regulating their emotions and behaviours. It helps you to understand how your behaviours and feelings are linked and how to manage your emotions safely.
How many sessions will I have?
- This is a 24 week programme with one-to-one and group sessions.
- The sessions will be adapted to suit your age and needs.
Working with your clinician
DBT involves working collaboratively with your clinician in one-to-one and group sessions. This work may involve understanding your feelings, learning coping skills to manage them and start to make positive changes in your life. You will have regular reviews with your clinician to make sure this approach is working for you.
Maudsley NHS: DBT - What is it and who is it for?
This video explains what DBT can be helpful for and what DBT involves. This video is 8 minutes 4 seconds.
Maudsley NHS: Principles of DBT
This video explains how DBT is used to help you with your difficulties. This video is 8 minutes 40 seconds.
UC San Francisco: What is Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for adolescents (DBT)?
This video explains how DBT is used to help you with your difficulties. This video is 8 minutes 1 second.
The therapies we offer in CAMHS have been tested and proven to help. You have been offered DBT as this is the best way to know how to help children and young people regulate their emotions.
You can read about a young person’s experience of DBT here.
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) Informed Intervention
These interventions are based on DBT principles and skills, but is not full programme DBT as described above.
Building Resilience
- You will be offered 8 sessions, including a pre-therapy session and post therapy review.
- The sessions may be in-person or online.
- These will be one-to-one sessions.
- Sessions will be adapted to suit your age and needs.
- Your parents and carers may join some or all sessions.
Coping Skills Group
- You will be offered 8 sessions.
- These will be group sessions and in-person.
- The sessions will be adapted to suit your age and needs.
- Your parents and carers may join some or all sessions.
Balance and Regulate group
- This is an intervention for parents and carers.
- Parents and carers will be offered 8 sessions.
- Sessions will be group sessions and online.
- The sessions will be adapted to suit the age and needs of parents and carers.
We recognise that everyone is different, and we will make sure that the type of therapy offered fits your needs. You may have been offered a DBT informed intervention instead of DBT because it is less intense and a commitment for you.
How do I tell my therapist how therapy is going?
We will keep checking together to make sure your therapy is helping you. These are called review sessions, we will do a review session after every 6 therapy sessions.
If you feel it’s not working, you can tell your clinician in your review sessions. But you can also do this any other time that you would like to.
Your parents and carers might join these sessions, if you and your clinician think that is a good idea. You can tell your clinician if you don't want your parents and carers in your review sessions.
During your review sessions, you and your clinician will think about:
- How therapy is going
- Your goals and if therapy is helping you work towards these goals
- If you need support from other services. This could be services within CAMHS or outside of CAMHS.
Together you will:
- Update your care and/or safety plans
- Update your risk assessment
- Complete questionnaires to track your progress, you can read more about this on our Tracking Your Progress page
- Plan next steps e.g. for therapy, starting to a different therapy, moving on from CAMHS.
Sometimes reviewing how your therapy is going involves your clinician talking to other clinicians in their team. This will happen in Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) meetings.
MDT meetings help your clinician think about you and your difficulties in different ways and what your next step might be. Your clinician will always share what was discussed in MDT meetings with you and use this to plan your next steps with you.
Requesting reasonable adjustments
We encourage you or your parents and carers to talk to your clinician about adjustments you may need. We will make adaptations to support you to engage with the therapy we offer. Below are some examples of adjustments you could ask for:
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Information to be shared in different formats or languages
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Breaks during the session so that you can move around
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Using fidget toys and turning off bright lights
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Using visuals or writing down your thoughts
More information about my therapy
Children, Young People, Parents and Carers
This website explains:
- What is DBT?
- What does DBT treat?
- What are DBT sessions like?
- How can I get DBT?
- Can I do DBT by myself?
This website explains:
- What is talking therapy?
- Common types of talking therapy
- What happens during therapy sessions?
- How to make the most of therapy sessions?
- How to access talking therapy
- Finding the right therapist for you
Parents and Carers
Young Minds - Counselling and therapy
This website link may be helpful for parents and carers to understand:
- How can I get counselling or therapy for my child?
- Finding the right support for your child
- Common types of talking therapies
- Talking to your child about counselling and therapy
- Supporting your child during counselling or therapy
- Looking after yourself
- Useful helplines and websites
Click the link below to find information about NICE guidelines and recommendations for recognition, assessment and treatment for Emotional Intensity.
NICE Guideline - Preventing suicide in community and custodial settings
NICE Guideline - Self-harm: assessment, management and preventing recurrence
This document from Anna Freud explains why we offer the therapies we do and the evidence that supports their use. This document explains:
- What is self-harm?
- How can I get help?
- Assessment
- When and why you will be offered different therapies?
- The evidence behind each type of therapy for treating PTSD