DBT

What to expect from adherent DBT treatment:

• DBT skills training: In DBT skills training, participants learn skills for mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. DBT skills training is usually conducted in a group setting, which meets weekly for one year. In skills training groups, much like a class, the skills trainer teaches skills and assigns homework for practicing skills. I refer to several DBT groups in the Seattle area, please contact me for referrals. If you are unable to attend a group, I offer individual skills training sessions.

• DBT individual therapy is focused on enhancing motivation and helping clients to apply the skills to specific challenges and events in their lives. Individual therapy takes place once a week for as long as the client is in therapy and runs concurrently with skills groups

• DBT phone coaching is focused on providing clients with in-the-moment coaching on how to use skills to effectively cope with difficult situations that arise in their everyday lives. Clients can call their individual therapist between sessions to receive coaching at the times when they need help the most. As your therapist, I like to say that individual therapy is like “basketball practice” and phone coaching is like receiving direction from your coach while you are “in the game.”

• DBT therapist consultation team The consultation team is designed to help therapists stay motivated and competent so they can provide the best treatment possible. As an intensively trained DBT therapist, it is my responsibility to you as the client to maintain weekly consultation so that I am providing you the best treatment possible. 

Photograph with Marsha Linehan, Ph.D., creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy