Dialectical Behavior Therapy

What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?

DBT is The Best Therapy for people who have trouble with emotions and/or self-harm behaviors.

It basically consists of learning things that you never learned as a child or young adult. These things are called “skills,” but to my mind they are like getting a little black book about how to do life. When I first learned them when I was teaching a skills group, I thought “Man! I wish I was taught this when I was a teenager! It would have been WAY helpful.”

Then, your therapist helps you learn how to APPLY those skills to your actual life. It is SO COOL!

You learn things like:

• how to ask for something in a way that helps you not only get it but also keeps people liking you, or makes them like you even more
• how to reduce your emotional sensitivity in the long run
• and how to calm down emotions in the short run
• how to tolerate your life when it feels awful, so you don’t do stupid things that make it worse (everyone I know needs this!)
• how to get your life to run more smoothly so crazy things stop happening
• how to notice when things are going wrong in time to stop them or slow them down, so they don’t blow up
• how to be more in control of your attention to the unwanted and discouraging thoughts that pop up in your mind
• how to track behaviors in a USEFUL way so that you can see patterns and intervene in a way that gets you back on track (or on track for the first time!)
• how to improve relationships one conversation at a time

My Experience and Training in DBT:

I have been doing DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) since 1996. I started this training under the wonderful tutorship of Dr. Martha Wetter and Dr. Ruth Baer while at the University of Kentucky and at the Comprehensive Care Mental Health Clinic.

Dr. Wetter led her group (including me) through the DBT Intensive Training twice during my years at the Comprehensive Care Clinic. Additionally, Dr. Baer taught a graduate level class in DBT that was the same as going through the intensive training yet one more time.

Not only did I see a wide range of DBT clients for individual therapy, I also co-led a basic skills training group and an advanced skills training group. Near the end of my years at Comprehensive Care, Dr. Wetter and I co-led a 40-hour training on DBT for Kentucky state mental health workers. I also attended a week-long Advanced DBT workshop taught by Dr. Marsha Linehan.

Since then I have been involved in DBT as both an individual DBT therapist, a skills group leader, a member of a therapist consultation group and as a consultant.

What I love about DBT:

• Colleague-style collaboration with a client, not a superior – inferior relationship
• Open acknowledgment that the client is doing the best she or he can at the moment
• Open acknowledgement that even as we all do our best, we can still work to be more effective
• Creating change in the present rather than excavating the old and dead mysteries of the past
• Bringing new and exciting understanding of how emotions work and how your emotion mind makes sense
• Deep appreciation of how much you have struggled to get to where you are right now

What to expect in DBT Therapy:

• Weekly homework
• Coaching texts and calls are available and encouraged
• Fill out a weekly diary card that we will customize to your needs and interests
• Practice skills and practice observing your reactions, thoughts and feelings
• Learn about willingness
• Get excited about your progress!

Let’s set up a time to talk about getting you started in individual DBT therapy.