Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills

Goals of interpersonal effectiveness include getting people to meet your needs, getting them to do those things you want them to do, and to get others to take your opinions seriously. The aim is to strengthen current relationships, build new and satisfying relationships, and end those relationships that are unhealthy or toxic. It is important to create and maintain balance in relationships, and balance change with acceptance.

Interpersonal effective skills are not naturally attained, they need to be learned. Emotions often get in the way of building healthy relationships. Sometimes our automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) about ourselves get in the way of finding new relationships and/or in ending toxic ones.

The Skills

It is important to clarify your goals and maintain your self-respect. DBT uses four skill building activities for clients to learn effective interpersonal skills: