Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a modified cognitive-behavioral treatment that is the only Evidence-Based Practice to prevent suicide. All findings suggest that DBT is more effective at targeting and reducing suicidal and non-suicidal self-injurious behavior, improving treatment retention, reducing medical lethality of suicide attempts, decreasing hospitalizations and ER visits. It is also effective at reducing therapist burnout and costs associated with treatment of multi-diagnostic clients. Since 2009 Crestwood has been offering DBT to our clients. Crestwood’s initial DBT training for our DBT therapists was conducted by Marcia Linehan’s team at Behavioral Tech in 2009. The focus continues through the training to assist clinical teams with the implementation and development of full DBT programs.
DBT assists clients in learning skills to help them to regulate their emotional responses to situations that occur in their lives that they may have previously responded to in a self-destructive or aggressive manner. DBT consists of individual therapy sessions that are held weekly with an individual treatment provider to review events from the past week, and diary cards that a client keeps daily and follows the treatment hierarchy. Also weekly skills training classes are held that focus on emotional regulation skills, mindfulness skills, interpersonal effectiveness skills, and distress tolerance skills.