The Standard comprehensive DBT program includes 5 modes of treatment components; Individual Psychotherapy, DBT Skills Training, Phone Coaching, and DBT Consultations Teams for the therapist. It’s a comprehensive program, as people with complicated lives require a comprehensive approach to address their multiple needs. This differentiates DBT from other systems of psychotherapies, which usually include one mode of therapy.

Individual Therapy serves two purposes in the DBT Program: 

1. Enhances motivation with individual therapy; As it’s focused on enhancing client motivation and helping clients apply skills to situations in their lives. In DBT Standard Model, individual therapy is done once a week, in alliance with DBT Skills Training. 
2. Structuring the Environment: Individual therapy helps structure the environment by teaching strategies and providing consultation to help clients manage their own lives.

Skills training is usually taught in a class setting during weekly sessions. Skills training aims to enhance a client’s capabilities, rather than the problematic behaviors that clients develop to cope or solve problems. Skills training covers the following four skills: 

• Mindfulness: the practice of being fully aware and present in this one moment​
• Distress Tolerance: how to tolerate pain in difficult situations, not change it​
• Interpersonal Effectiveness: how to ask for what you want and say no while maintaining self-respect and relationships with others​
• Emotion Regulation: To regulate the intensity of your emotions to be the most effective in any given situation​

The full cycle varies, but the usual cycle is one year, which consists of 2 six-months cycles of the skills training. Most clients find it beneficial to attend two cycles of skills training, as clients need to consolidate their knowledge and practice. Homework assignments help clients practice the skills and generalize the skills in their everyday lives.

DBT Certification is done through Dialectical Behavior Therapy – Linehan Board of Certification, Independent 501C6, under U.S. Law. Please visit the website for the official DBT certification organization, the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, (DBT-LBC).

DBT MENA, under BTECH is able to provide training and consultation to provide pursuit of certification.

Phone coaching is an integral part of DBT. The goal is to help clients transfer their DBT Skills to their own environment. Generalization practice is critical to the successful transfer of DBT skills to the client’s environment.

Case management is about empowering the person to take control of their lives. Case management is about wrapping around and organizing so that the client can manage their daily life challenges. Case management is distinguished through the balance of consultation to the patient and environmental intervention strategies.

The DBT Consultation team is a critical component of providing a comprehensive DBT treatment. People new to DBT, or are looking into becoming DBT practitioners often have a lot of questions about DBT teams, so we have listed the most frequently asked questions. 

A DBT Consultation Team is a group of DBT practitioners working together in groups of 3-8 people. It may be a combination of providers who work in different roles (eg: social worker, psychotherapist, psychiatrist, etc.) Meetings are conducted on a regular basis, in order to help each other out with managing high risk clients and the potential of burnout. 

Clients with life threatening or life interfering behaviors can easily lose motivation, or lose the dialectic balance between change and acceptance. Your DBT team will help you in maintaining motivation, enhancing your skills, and monitor adherence and fidelity to the program. 

Additionally, DBT Consultation Teams are a requirement for comprehensive trainings by the DBT Linehan board of Certification. 

1. Start a New DBT team by attending Dialectical Behavior Therapy Intensive Training 

DBT Certification 

You may find your team within your practice setting, or you may form a network with other professionals in the training. In some instances, a therapist might form a virtual team with at least two other members. This is a viable option for people who are committed to functioning as a team, even if they treat separate groups of clients or live in different areas.

New DBT teams are eligible to apply to the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Intensive Training,  a ten-day course designed to prepare teams to develop and implement a DBT program.

1. Join an existing DBT Team: 

Some therapists are able to join an existing DBT team. This might happen if you are hired to work at an organization with an existing DBT program or you find a team that is already functioning. 

 You can search for established DBT teams DBT Community Page  in our or through networking.

Feel free to contact DBT MENA to assist you with finding a team if you’re finding difficulty.

The evidence for DBT’s effectiveness has examined the standard model of DBT, and it includes the four modes of treatment and consultation team. There is no evidence that DBT individually applied in the absence of a consultation team is effective.

The DBT program, along with the clients enrolled in the program may make a therapist’s work difficult for many reasons. Meetings are conducted on a regular basis. The DBT team functions to maintain motivation, enhance skills and monitor adherence and fidelity to the model.