Or maybe you’re in need of a DBT skills refresher?
We offer DBT essentials in a 12-week program! Get a condensed version of the core DBT skills in our EASE program
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, DBT may be an effective treatment for you.
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Wake Kendall offers DBT in the Washington, D.C. metro area with a range of presenting concerns.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is the gold standard approach to helping people who struggle with managing intense emotions. DBT is an evidence-based therapy with a goal of increasing emotional regulation and changing behaviors that are getting in the way of life goals and relationships . DBT has been found to be effective in helping individuals with a wide array of diagnoses or difficulties, including borderline personality disorder, major depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, ADHD, and self-harm and suicidal behaviors.
As part of their work in DBT clients learn skills in mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Clients attend one weekly group lasting one hour and forty-five minutes.
Individual therapists help clients identify meaningful goals and target specific behaviors to change. Clients keep a “diary card,” a checklist for tracking thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and skills on a daily basis. During sessions, the therapist’s role is to help the client understand more about their problem behaviors and apply new skills and strategies as needed.
Clients attend one weekly instructional group with roughly eight to ten participants and two professional leaders. The group lasts one hour and forty-five minutes. The topics covered are:
Telephone coaching is a critically important component of treatment that is rare in other forms of therapy. Clients are encouraged to reach out to their individual therapist for brief skills-oriented coaching when they are struggling to apply skills outside of the therapy hour.
Individual therapists and group skills leaders meet on a weekly basis and work as a consultation team to ensure that we are providing the best treatment possible for each client.
The DBT program at our Washington, D.C. office is true to the model of a community of therapists treating a community of clients.
The Wake Kendall DBT community took root in 2003 when Wake Kendall psychologists first participated in week-long intensive training sessions with Dr. Marsha Linehan, the founder of DBT. The Wake Kendall DBT program has grown organically as we have observed clients making effective use of DBT to achieve their goals.
Our comprehensive DBT program was the first in the Washington, D.C. metro area to be certified by the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification and we continually integrate cutting edge advances in treatment into our work to provide the highest standard of care.
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To get started, complete our brief online application. Once we receive your application, our intake coordinator (202-972-4629, ext. 30) will contact you within one business day. We know that at this point you are likely to have questions about DBT and our program. Please be assured that these will be addressed in the complimentary 20-minute phone screening call and again in pre-DBT individual therapy sessions so that we are all confident that DBT is a good fit for you.
We’ve worked hard to remove barriers to accessing high quality comprehensive DBT. In the event that there is a short wait time to sit down with one of our intensively trained therapists, you may be eligible to participate in skills training group as an adjunct to your ongoing treatment outside of the Wake Kendall Group while you are on the wait list to join our comprehensive DBT program. Read more here!
DBT-Linehan Board of Certification (DBT-LBC) Program Certification indicates that the program has the structure and practices consistent with the delivery of a comprehensive implementation of DBT. The program must have a team leader who is a DBT-LBC, Certified Clinician and must undergo a rigorous and extensive review that includes document review, interviews with treatment providers and clients, and on-site observations of the DBT program practices in action.
Some members of our team have also pursued and achieved individual therapist certification as DBT-LBC, Certified Clinicians. As with program certification, the clinician certification process involves a number of steps that show understanding of and adherence to the DBT model. It is an unusually demanding process, and it is a testament to our program that Wake Kendall therapists have been successful in becoming certified. To learn more about the DBT-LBC, visit the DBT-LBC website.
We have a robust team of psychologists, social workers and counselors in which senior members share accumulated experience, and early career therapists infuse our program with new energy and ideas. Our team meets weekly, and we continually hone our skills with ongoing training and regular consultation with DBT experts in other parts of the country. We are honored to be involved in important changes in the lives of our clients, some of whom have come to us with extensive histories of prior treatment. The central idea in DBT is that individuals are doing the best they can and, at the same time, need to change. We constantly seek to improve our ability to meet the needs of our clients, and we believe that humility and a respect for the formidable challenges faced by clients are critical to our work.
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