Intensive Outpatient Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Everyone needs help sometimes and seeking help is a sign of resilience and strength. People struggling to manage stress and regulate their feelings may also experience anxiety, depression, self-harming, and suicidal thinking. People living with these challenges may not have been helped by traditional psychotherapy (“talk therapy”). Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a proven approach to help address these concerns.

Every person is unique, which is why we never use a one-size-fits-all approach. A therapist works with each person to establish a care plan that is adapted to fit the needs of the person, considering both age and development as well. Together, our therapists work with the person they serve to build a hopeful path forward through weekly individual therapy, phone coaching, and weekly skills training.

Our DBT team is comprised of compassionate, dedicated, and experienced professionals who are licensed psychologists, clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, professional clinical counselors, and supervised clinical trainees. The consultation team meets weekly to ensure care is coordinated and continues to meet the needs of each person served.

Services provided within our Intensive Outpatient Dialectical Behavior Therapy included weekly individual DBT therapy and weekly individual or family or group skills training. Services are available in-person at the clinic in New Hope or to anyone residing in Minnesota via telehealth.

DBT helps with day-to-day life and coping with difficult situations, by building skills such as:

• Mindfulness. This is the ability to be present in the current moment and experience sensations, feelings, and thoughts in a nonjudgmental way. Mindfulness can help when we are overwhelmed and can increase our capacity for joy and hope.
• Distress tolerance. These skills help people navigate through difficult and painful moments without making things worse. Distress tolerance skills include crisis survival skills and the ability to accept pain in a more effective way.
• Interpersonal effectiveness. This helps to create necessary boundaries, by reducing painful and chaotic relationships. Interpersonal effectiveness skills teach people how to ask for what they want or need and say no to unwanted requests, while maintaining their self-respect.
• Emotion regulation. This skill helps to reduce painful, unwanted emotions. People learn how to live more effectively with their emotions – how emotions work, how to manage them more effectively, and how to reduce sensitivity to emotions.