What is DBT Informed Therapy?
At our practice, every clinician has some training and practical experience implementing individual and group DBT informed care. DBT, short for Dialectical Behavior Therapy, is a newer, evidenced-based therapy approach created by Dr. Marsha Linehan. Although the DBT adherent format was originally intended for the treatment of borderline personality disorder and highly suicidal individuals, over time, DBT has been effectively used to treat symptoms of anxiety, depression, addiction, disordered eating, and a variety of other symptoms. We are strong proponents that DBT skills are life skills, and you don’t need to have a specific diagnosis to benefit from learning skills.
The word dialectic means that two opposing things can be true at the same time. We can feel lonely and still be surrounded by people. We can accept things as they are and still strive for change. We can do the best we can and want to do better. Multiple things can be true at the same time. DBT contains four modules all centered around the idea that we learn to live a balanced life, rather than in extremes. These modules are mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation, and distress tolerance, with many skills within each module. We are a DBT informed practice, not a DBT adherent practice. This means that we work with you as individual to assess what your goals and therapeutic needs are and teach skills accordingly, rather than adhere to a strict structure of going through every skill within DBT. DBT informed care is more appropriate for individuals with a mild-moderate level of risk, rather than higher risk individuals who would benefit from a DBT adherent structure. Put simply, we integrate DBT skills and principles into therapy, rather than provide comprehensive DBT treatment.
If you’re interested in decreasing a feeling of emptiness, being out of touch with yourself and others, judgementalness, interpersonal conflict and stress, difficulty with change, extreme emotions, mood dependent behavior, difficulty regulating emotions, impulsive behaviors, difficulty accepting reality as it is, or willfulness, DBT informed care might be a good fit for you. We will always obtain consent and provide psychoeducation on DBT informed care before getting into skill work. You cannot fail in DBT, and we will always work at your pace. Our mission is to help you access tools to build a meaningful life.
In DBT informed therapy, you can expect skills to be introduced with clinically appropriate, integrated into existing treatment plans, used as low-stakes, behavioral experiments, and reinforced in session. Before you know it, you’ll be using skills-based language to describe daily interactions and will be able to give feedback on which skills are effective for you and which needs to be remixed based on your circumstances.
We are truly passionate about DBT informed care and love working with individuals and groups to teach skills. You will walk away from session with something to practice and collect data on before the next session.
