Comprehensive Adolescent DBT

Adolescent DBT treatment is for individuals ages 12-18 years old and consists of a combination of Multi-family DBT skills group, individual therapy sessions, and phone coaching. The individual therapy sessions allow you to have one-on-one contact with a trained therapist who will help you apply DBT skills to your daily life, address any obstacle that may arise and keep you motivated! The Multi-family DBT skills group interactions will help you practice skills with others and offer mutual support.

Individual Therapy (weekly)

Individual therapy takes place weekly for most clients, though some clients with acute issues may see their therapist twice a week.  

Multi-Family Skills Group (weekly)

For Adolescents participating in the full DBT protocol, the group component will consist of a Multi-Family Group (MFG). As opposed to adult DBT groups where family members are not present, in MFG at least one parent or guardian is required to participate with each teen. Parent participation is key to teen success! Parent participation allows for parents to learn the language of DBT to be on the same page as their kids, but also to learn skills for their own use managing difficult emotions and in interactions with their teen.

Once pre-treatment is completed, clients can begin attending a skills group. This is a psychoeducational group that meets for 90 minutes weekly. Multi-Family groups typically include 6 to 8 family dyads for a total of 12-16 people. 

Adolescent Multi-family Group covers five skills modules: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Walking the Middle Path. Goals of skills training include:

• Core Mindfulness- teaches participants how to focus the mind and direct attention. These skills can help teens develop a more stable sense of who they are and can help reduce reactivity to painful thoughts and emotions.
• Distress tolerance- teaches crisis survival skills to target impulsivity due to intense emotions. These skills are designed to replace targeted behaviors addressed in individual therapy.
• Emotion regulation- addresses emotional sensitivity, rapid mood changes, and teaches how to label emotions, regulate moods, and decrease vulnerabilities.
• Interpersonal Effectiveness- addresses difficulties in maintaining consistent and rewarding relationships by teaching skills to effectively get what you want, build and maintain relationships, and create and maintain self-respect.
• Walking the Middle Path- targets extreme, rigid, or black and white thinking. These skills focus on validation and acceptance as ways to decrease conflict in relationships.

Phone Coaching (as needed)

Phone coaching is designed to strengthen and generalize their skills use in real time. When clients feel “stuck” and unsure what to do, they are encouraged to contact their individual therapist for help in applying their newly learned DBT skills.