Comprehensive DBT or DBT Informed?

Choosing the best path for your needs


Knowledge Is Power!
We encourage you to collect the information needed to make a choice about the treatment path that fits you best.

Comprehensive DBT

For DBT treatment to be considered "Comprehensive," it must meet five functions:
1. Enhancing Capabilities
2. Improving Motivation
3. Generalizing skills to the environment
4. Structuring the environment
5. Enhancing therapist capabilities and motivation

To meet these functions and therefore provide "Comprehensive DBT," the Trinitas DBT program includes:

1. Enhancing Capabilities

  • In the adult DBT program, a weekly two-hour DBT Skills Group. It is designed to teach participants the skills of mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness and distress tolerance. Through teaching, discussion, homework practice and review, group members learn skills to begin to effectively problem solve and reclaim their life.
  • In the adolescent DBT program, a weekly two-hour Multifamily DBT Skills Group. It is designed to teach adolescents and their parents/caregivers the skills of mindfulness, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance and "Walking the Middle Path." Through teaching, discussion, interactive activities and homework practice and review, group members learn skills to begin to problem solve effectively and begin reclaiming their life.

2. Improving Motivation

  • In both the Adult and Adolescent DBT programs, clients receive weekly individual therapy. Clients are assigned a member of the DBT team as their primary therapist. Individual sessions are designed to validate the experience of the client while encouraging changes that can improve their lives. The DBT therapy process is structured and also collaborative in terms of identifying behaviors targeted for change, generating solution strategies, applying skills learned in groups, and improving decision-making skills.
  • In the Adolescent DBT program, families are included in sessions on an as-needed basis. In addition, parents/caregivers are also provided with individual parent coaching sessions when appropriate.

3. Generalizing Skills to the Environment

  • In both the Adult and Adolescent DBT programs, clients have access to their individual therapist between sessions for brief phone coaching to help them generalize their skills to real-world situations.
  • In the Adolescent DBT program, parents/caregivers can call the skills groups leaders for coaching when necessary.

4. Structuring the Environment

  • In both the Adult and Adolescent DBT programs, additional services to help structure the environment so that clients can have the greatest likelihood of succeeding in the world. This includes family education, education of the community, case management when clients are unsuccessful in using their own skills to reach goals, etc.

5. Enhancing Therapist Capabilities and Motivation

  • Consultation teams are held weekly in both the adult and adolescent DBT programs. These meetings are essentially "group therapy for DBT therapists." The goal is to help therapists be the "best" DBT therapists they can be so the clients get the best treatment they can receive.

DBT Informed Treatment

"DBT informed" treatment is treatment that uses some of the methods or structure of DBT (e.g., using the DBT manual to teach skills, individual therapy following the priorities of DBT), AND does not meet all five of the functions. While "DBT informed" treatment can be very helpful forsome clients, it is important to recognize that research shows that "Comprehensive DBT" is the most effective, especially for clients who suffer with more severe symptoms.