The DBT Modality
What is DBT?
DBT stands for Dialectical Behavior Therapy . DBT is a type of therapy that teaches practical coping skills and mindfulness skills to explore each person’s patterns that lead to problem behaviors. DBT has been proven effective to help people of all ages suffering from depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, PTSD, bipolar disorder, emotion dysregulation, substance abuse, and eating disorders. DBT therapists at EAC believe any person can benefit from learning these vital skills — and we joke that we should be teaching everyone these skills in the first grade.
What Does DBT Therapy Look Like?
If you are looking for a concrete way to change problem behaviors or simply become more accepting of yourself, we recommend DBT. DBT is a form of psychotherapy that teaches skills of mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. To do DBT by the model, you have to be in weekly individual therapy, a weekly DBT skills group, using skills coaching, and your therapist has to be on a consultation team. You have to commit to at least six months of doing all of these, even when you don’t want to. DBT model is proven highly effective, as shown by numerous randomized controlled trials.
The goal is not to just do another therapy and hope it works. The whole goal of DBT is to have a Life Worth Living.
Our DBT Intensively Trained Clinicians at EAC are:
Our Other Clinicians who are DBT-informed, receiving DBT training and DBT supervision:
What’s Different About the Way EAC Does DBT?
Just as DBT was created, DBT needs to be dialectical — we believe in a balanced approach, not in a “one size fits all” approach. We tailor our approach to each individual’s needs and values, starting where they are.
If you’re not ready to commit to DBT, we work with you to help you get ready, if that’s what YOU want. Our job is to come alongside you, not to force you to do anything.
Our clinicians believe deeply in the balance of acceptance and change: We must first accept ourselves as we are before we are capable of changing our behaviors.
We don’t believe that the solution to all the world’s problems is to “think better” — sometimes life is hard and we can’t think our way out of it. We believe that unjust systems must change AND individual people must do the hard work to heal.
If you are having trouble changing your behaviors, we don’t believe you’re failing. We believe in getting deeply curious, in a nonjudgmental way, to explore all the different parts of you that may creating an inner conflict. And then, supporting you to move towards your Life Worth Living goals.
We believe in taking responsibility for our actions as well as looking at the causes of our problems. “You may not have caused all your problems, and you are the only one who can solve them,” Marsha Linehan says. We want to walk with you in this process.
We believe deeply in listening to you AND encouraging you to use your skills.
We know not every clinician and not every clinic is for every client. If we are not the right fit for any reason, we will refer you to someone who we believe is.