Developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan, DBT is an evidence-based treatment for those who have difficulty regulating their emotions. DBT is a comprehensive therapy designed to help people better understand and regulate their emotions, reduce impulsive or harmful behavior, and improve their relationships with others. DBT incorporates behavioral science, dialectical philosophy, and Zen practice which aims to help people build "a life worth living."
Clinical research studies demonstrate the following benefits of DBT treatment:
People who benefit from DBT include those with depression, anxiety, substance use, eating disorders, PTSD, emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, and relationship difficulties.
DBT differs from other forms of behavioral therapy. Through the use of acceptance and change strategies, DBT clinicians empower clients to move past problematic and ineffective behavior patterns towards healthy and effective coping. The goal of DBT is to help clients build a life worth living by learning to better be able to tolerate stress and accept reality, increasing mindfulness of their thoughts, emotions and urges through mindfulness skills, effectively regulating their emotions, and skillfully managing relationships.
Please contact us at (305) 330-9495 or dr.rojas@intuitiveconnectionscounseling.com if you cannot find an answer to your question.
Our standard comprehensive DBT program includes the following:
Individual Therapy: Clients attend weekly individual therapy sessions over the course of treatment.
Skills Group: Skills training is divided into four to five modules. Skills are taught in weekly sessions over the course of the program.
Parent Training and Parent Skills Group: For our adolescents in our DBT Adolescent (DBT-A) program, parents and caregivers of teens learn skills within the same modules to reinforce skills at home.
24-Hour Skills Phone Coaching: A DBT therapist helps clients in identifying DBT skills to apply in certain situations. Phone coaching is brief, structured, and supports the DBT Individual Therapy and DBT Skills Group sessions.
Consultation Team: To enhance the DBT therapist’s capabilities and ensure treatment is delivered to adherence, each DBT therapist is required to be on a team. Our clinicians are on an adherent DBT consultation team that meets weekly.
Skills training is a component of comprehensive DBT. In weekly skills group training, we teach the following skills:
Mindfulness: Learning the practice of being fully aware and present in the moment. This module helps individuals to increase their self-observation and awareness.
Distress Tolerance: Learning how to tolerate pain and distress in difficult situations instead of “acting out.” This module aims to decrease individuals’ impulsivity (acting before thinking it all through) and increase individuals’ ability to tolerate distress.
Emotion Regulation: Learning how to change emotions that you want to change. This module improves individuals’ emotional control and teaches individuals how to reduce their vulnerability to negative emotions.
Interpersonal Effectiveness: Learning how to ask for what you want and say no while maintaining self-respect and relationships with others. This module teaches individuals how to effectively deal with conflicts to target their pattern of difficulty keeping relationships steady.
Walking the Middle Path: Learning how to resolve family issues using concepts of behaviorism, dialectics, and validation. This module is for teens and families participating in the DBT-A program. This module helps teens and their families learn to compromise to something reasonable and fair to all.
Intuitive Connections Counseling provides comprehensive DBT. This means we provide the entire treatment that closely follows the evidence-based treatment manual, the principles set forth by Dr. Marsha Linehan, and the protocols used in current DBT research. We can also provide DBT-informed treatment, which incorporates specific components of the treatment that we believe will be beneficial to you based on your presenting difficulties. We offer flexible, tailored treatment that is designed to meet your needs and help you build a life worth living.
During your initial evaluation, we will assess you and determine the appropriate treatment plan based on your presenting difficulties and treatment goals. During this initial evaluation, you and your therapist will discuss whether the treatment plan would encompass DBT skills only or comprehensive DBT. DBT-Informed treatment involves individual therapy sessions that incorporate teaching you select DBT skills that apply for your specific struggles. Comprehensive DBT offers all components of the evidence-based treatment including individual therapy, skills training, phone coaching, and consultation team as well as parent training and parent skills sessions for our teen families.
Most DBT research suggests that individuals with multiple, chronic problems related to emotion dysregulation benefit from a year of DBT. Nonetheless, there is wide variability in the length of treatment. For adults, the minimum commitment is one year. For teens, our program aims for a commitment of 6 to 12 months. The teen, his or her family, and the teen’s therapist will establish an estimated length of treatment in the first few sessions. A teen may successfully complete therapy before that date or they may choose to stay beyond that date to work on additional targets.
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