“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing.”
Treatment at Chicago DBT Institute®
What Does Treatment Look Like at Chicago DBT®?
Individual Therapy: Patients meet with a Doctoral-level psychologist with advanced training in DBT at least once a week for a 60-minute individual therapy session.
Skills Group: Patients participate in weekly DBT skills groups that emphasize the following skills: mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation.
Phone Coaching: Patients have 24/7 access to the DBT therapist on call for phone coaching to help support the generalization of skills to real life. Phone coaching can be a vital component of treatment if you are about to engage in problematic behaviors.
Consultation Team: All staff members at Chicago DBT are required to participate on the DBT Consultation Team. This ensures that all therapists have the support they need to provide outstanding treatment. The whole Team is working on your case!
What are DBT Stages and Targets?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy organizes treatment into DBT stages and targets to first address issues that are life-threatening or interfere with effective treatment before learning new coping behaviors. DBT is organized into the following four stages:
Stage 1: The first stage of DBT therapy focuses on becoming more in control of behaviors. During this stage, individuals learn to reduce and eliminate life-threatening behaviors and behaviors that interfere with treatment, decrease behaviors that affect quality of life, and learn skills to help improve relationships and have better emotional regulation. Any co-occurring disorders, such as depression, anxiety disorders, or eating disorders, are also targeted at this time.
Stage 2: During the second stage of DBT therapy, focus shifts to learning full expression of emotions to decrease “suffering in silence.” Work in individual sessions addresses any trauma or symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and helps develop the capacity to experience emotions without shutting down.
Stage 3: The third stage of DBT therapy addresses strategies to resolve ordinary life problems, such as relationship issues or career concerns. This stage focuses on developing techniques for solving these types of problems in order to live a more functional life.
Stage 4: The final stage of DBT therapy focuses on developing a sense of connection to others and the world.
Your Chicago DBT®clinician has been highly trained in the administration of DBT by the treatment's original developers and most respected researchers and trainers.
“If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.”