DBT & Counseling Services

The Oak Center for DBT & Counseling Services provides Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and other evidence-based therapy options to meet a variety of needs.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy

What is DBT?

DBT is an evidence-based treatment developed by Marsha Linehan that is effective for changing problematic behaviors. The following video offers more information about DBT and how it works.

Created by the University of California San Francisco; written by Barbara Stuart and Esme Shaller and animated by Mark Wooding

Can DBT Help Me?

DBT was originally developed to treat individuals with frequent or recurring suicide attempts and who were diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). DBT is recognized as the standard of care for this population and is also effective in treating a wide range of other disorders and symptoms, including substance use, depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and disordered eating. The Oak Center offers DBT to individuals 13 and older.

What Can I Expect?

While enrolled in comprehensive DBT at The Oak Center, you will receive the following services: 

  • Weekly hour-long therapy sessions with your individual therapist

  • Weekly 2-hour skills training group facilitated by two therapists

  • Access to your individual therapist for phone coaching 24/7

  • Access to a team of therapists who are working together to meet your needs

What Skills Will I Learn?

The general goal of DBT Skills Training is to learn how to change your own behaviors, emotions, and thoughts that are linked to problems in living and are causing misery and distress. You will learn four sets of behavioral skills during individual therapy and skills group:

  • Interpersonal Effectiveness: Learn how to build new relationships, strengthen current ones, and deal with conflict situations.

  • Emotion Regulation: Learn how to reduce emotional suffering.

  • Mindfulness: Learn how to consciously focus your mind on the present moment, without judgement and without attachment to the moment in order to reduce suffering, increase happiness, increase of control of your mind, and experience reality as it is.

  • Distress Tolerance: Learn how to tolerate and survive crises without making things worse. 

The adolescent program mimics standard DBT, though there are notable differences. The weekly skills group is considered a multifamily group, meaning an adult “coach” (parent, caregiver, support person) is required to attend each week throughout the duration of the teen’s participation. The group has an additional module, Walking the Middle Path, focused specifically on the polarities between parents and their teen. 

Other Counseling Services

Perhaps DBT is not a good fit for you. Our team at The Oak Center is trained and experienced in a variety of additional evidence-based therapies used to treat a variety of other diagnoses and symptoms, including PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, depression, anxiety, and substance use. These services include:

  • Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

  • Prolonged Exposure (PE)

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • Motivational Interviewing (MI)

To learn more about these services and the therapists that provide them, please view our individual profiles.