DTT aids educators in applying psychodynamic constructs to understand how students' behavior is fueled by underlying emotional needs:

These are the psychodynamic tools that teachers use in DTT:

• Defense mechanisms
• Developmental anxieties
• Emotional memory
• Private realities
• Roles in peer groups and family groups
• Forms of social power
• Group dynamics

All of this information is needed by teachers to assist students in

• Making good behavioral choices
• Dealing with conflict in effective ways
• Building positive peer relationships
• Taking personal responsibility

These psychodynamic tools also provide teachers with information for

• Selecting emotionally appropriate behavioral interventions
• Dealing with student-student and student-teacher conflict in effective ways
• Building positive teacher-student relationships
• Choosing curriculum content that is sensitive to students’ emotional needs
• Designing academic lessons that also promote social-emotional- behavioral learning
• Minimizing the detrimental effect of developmental anxieties on learning