DBT Individual Psychotherapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) individual psychotherapy is one of the four primary modes of DBT delivery. Although the strongest evidence exists for DBT as a treatment for people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), DBT has been found to be effective for a wide variety of mental health conditions including Substance Use Disorder, depression, Bipolar Disorder, Cluster B Personality Disorders, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), eating disorders, transdiagnostic emotion dysregulation, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), suicidal and self-harming adolescents, and pre-adolescent children with severe emotional and behavioral dysregulation.  Clients participating in DBT individual therapy also attend a DBT skills group or have graduated from a DBT skills group.

The goal of individual DBT is to help clients create “a life worth living” by enhancing client motivation and helping clients to apply skills to specific challenges and events in their lives. The therapist helps the client address safety issues (suicidal thoughts and behaviors, self-injurious thoughts and behaviors), therapy-interfering issues (impulsive behaviors, things that interfere with therapy), quality of life interfering issues and other specific targets/goals. Clients monitor symptoms and skills used daily on a diary card, which is reviewed in each session. Chain analyses and missing links analyses are completed by the client both in sessions and outside sessions to analyze behaviors that the client wants to change and solution analyses are used to identify skills that could be helpful in specific situations. Clients and therapists explore a dialectical way of viewing things, which includes balancing acceptance and change. There are four levels to DBT treatment. Some clients see the same therapist for all the levels whereas other clients may see different therapists for different levels.

The individual therapist is available for “coaching calls” (one one of the four primary modes of DBT delivery) outside of sessions to help the client problem-solve barriers and generalize skills. The individual therapist attends a weekly DBT consultation meeting (one of the four primary modes of DBT delivery) to gain support and consultation from their colleagues.

An initial assessment is completed with each individual interested in receiving DBT services to discuss reason/s for seeking services, identify problems, strengths, goals, and recommendations, and determine diagnosis/es (if applicable).

Most types of insurance are accepted, as is private pay. Please contact your insurance company to determine your level of coverage.

For more information, to make a referral, or to request an assessment for our DBT program, contact us at 651-644-4100.