Image of woman with dreadlocks meditating with a cat.

What is DBT?

DBT is a therapeutic style that holds a balance between being flexible and structured.

While DBT was created to help people with borderline personality disorder its focus on building, accountability, coping strategies and focus on helping someone define and build a life worth living has been helpful for others as well.

Comprehensive DBT is a year long intervention with three parts, focused individual therapy, DBT Skills group, and phone coaching. Some people do improve with just skills group or just DBT individual but many find that they need all components to make the most gains.

Mixed media image on trauma card of woman with a swan and the words "so be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit"

What Does DBT Treat?

DBT has proven to be effective for treating and managing a wide range of mental health conditions, including:

  • BPD

  • Bipolar Spectrum Disorders

  • PTSD

  • Substance Misuse

  • Depression

  • Anxiety

Tell me more about

DBT Skills?

DBT Skills fall into four units aimed at improving different aspects of coping with emotions and acting effectively.

  • Mindfulness Skills are an essential foundation of DBT. Each skills group begins with a mindfulness activity. Mindfulness skills are taught as a unit and integrated into all the modules listed below rather than separately.

    DBT Mindfulness skillsis the practice of keeping your attention in the present moment. Attention can be given to actions (like yoga, cooking, being in a conversation) or internally focused (noticing your emotions, listening to your inner wisdom.)

    Mindfulness helps you attend to needs, emotions, thoughts, wants and instincts so we can regulate our emotions even more deeply.

  • Some people have emotions that come on intensely. It can be difficult to then sit with the discomfort they cause. Some people have a story about themselves “I can’t stand this” “My heart will literally break.” Escaping intense emotions can lead to habits that you know don’t serve you in the long run.

    Emotionally Sensitive people often (quite understandably!) turn to impulsive actions and escapes when the emotional pain feels too hard to bear – because it works in the short term).

    Distress tolerance is about learning to sit with those really difficult, intensely emotional moments in ways that will honor both your need to feel better and your longer-term goals.

    This module can help with the following:

    • Your Emotions Get So Overwhelming They’re Unbearable and…upsets quickly escalate to feeling like a crisis

    • even small amounts of stress feel overwhelming

    • you worry each time that the intense episode will last forever

    • find yourself avoiding, numbing, denying, or suppressing the trigger and emotions

    • you try to make yourself feel better but often end up feeling worse

  • Is for passionate people with strong emotions and impulses. Some people might see themselves as “empaths” because their emotions are so intense, especially when they hear about injustice. There is value in this super compassionate part of who you are *and* you there is value in learning to channel emotional intensity so that one doesn’t feel like an exposed nerve.

    This module can help with the following:

    You Often Act Out on Emotion and…

    • it’s challenging sometimes to pinpoint what led to you acting on an impulse, urge, or in response to an intense emotion

    • your emotional reactions seem more intense than those of other people

    • you sometimes think your emotional intensity is out of proportion to the trigger but don’t know what to do about it

    • Your self-care is either non-existent or needs some work, because you’re

    • not taking care of yourself physically

    • sleep is unbalanced (

    • caffeine, nicotine, or other substances are impacting your mood

  • This module can help you understand and how to set hard and permeable boundaries with others. This unit is also helps rejection sensitive folks understand what reasonable expectations that others can have of you and you can have of others.

    We think that mending, ending and building relationships can be healthy and helpful.

    This unit can be helpful for folks who:

    • get the feedback that you’re pushing other people’s boundaries

    • are an empath and take on other people’s emotions

    • You see pretty much everything as a sign that someone’s going to leave or reject you

    • Dread any kind of disagreement with others because you don’t know how to handle it