Hi Yggy,
I've done DBT in a clinic - it was two days per week and a minimum six month commitment - and I ended up doing it for 14 months. It takes about six months to go through all the material - and then you repeat them again and seem to learn new things! There is a section on emotional regulation, then one on interpersonal skills, then one on distress tolerance and then in between we did a few weeks on mindfulness skills. I guess overall it was about making peace and understanding emotions and finding more healthy ways to manage them. It was also about how to interact with people in more assertive effective ways to strengthen relationships. It was about finding balance between one's rational self and one's emotional self. For me personally it was about staying in a group situation and not running away and working through all the interpersonal difficulties that arose. I found it incredibly helpful, i achieved most of my goals, and now have a much better decision making capacity, and am more relaxed in group spaces, can talk in public more confidently and can sit through really uncomfortable interpersonal situations and have more skills to try to resolve them. I guess for me it was valuable, but was just step one, and now step two is trying to change some of my underlying beliefs and difficulties via schema therapy. It feels like schema therapy allows one to go below the surface more than dbt, dbt is more about practical coping strategies and skills. But i think the power of being in a group for dbt was very powerful and growthful. Anyways I hope that helps - I'm happy to answer any questions you might have, although i can only give my spin on things! Maybe you can ask those two doctors who have recommended dbt why they recommend it? what do they think you will gain from it? maybe that will help you do your own research and decide?
Kind wishes, Christina
