DBT Briefs
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a type of therapy that helps people learn practical skills to manage intense emotions, handle stress, and improve relationships. It’s especially helpful if you feel emotions very strongly, get overwhelmed easily, or find yourself stuck in patterns that don’t feel good but are hard to change.
DBT is built on a balance of two important ideas: acceptance and change. In therapy, we work on accepting yourself and your experiences as they are—without judgment—while also learning new ways to respond when emotions feel out of control. DBT teaches concrete skills in areas like mindfulness (being present), emotion regulation (understanding and managing feelings), distress tolerance (getting through hard moments without making things worse), and interpersonal effectiveness (communicating needs and setting boundaries).
DBT is structured, supportive, and skills-focused, but also deeply validating. The goal isn’t to “fix” you—it’s to help you build a life that feels more stable, meaningful, and worth living, even when things are hard.
What is DBT?
DBT Briefs are time-limited (between 6-8 sessions) chunks of treatment focused exclusively on specific skills that you would benefit from in order to address specific problems you are experiencing. DBT Briefs begin with an assessment of your current concerns, current and historical coping (both effective and ineffective), and what you want things to look like instead. Once we have completed that assessment, I will identify the skills you would benefit from learning and applying to the problems you’re facing. The following sessions would involve learning the skill(s) and practicing them together. In between sessions you would schedule time into your week to actively practice the skills utilized and track that practice. Subsequent sessions would begin with an assessment of how skills practice went and looking at any themes that arose through practice. The second half of session would involve further skills education and practice.
What is a DBT Brief?
DBT Modules
Mindfulness
Mindfulness focuses on learning how to be present in the moment without judgment. This allows you to notice thoughts, emotions, and urges in order to make decisions that are aligned with your values, instead of being controlled by them.
Mindfulness can help if…
you feel disconnected from yourself
you’re stuck in overthinking
get easily overwhelmed by emotions
your find yourself ruminating, dissociating, or having impulsive reactions
Distress Tolerance
Distress Tolerance focuses on building skills to get through intense or painful moments without making things worse. This is especially helpful in situations where you can’t immediately change the circumstances.
Distress Tolerance can help if…
you are in an emotional crisis- overwhelmed and struggling to think clearly
you have urges that feel urgent or unbearable
you self-harm or have suicidal thinking
you’re panicked or shutdown
Emotion Regulation
Emotion Regulation helps you build an understanding of emotions and learn new ways to reduce the intensity of those emotions. It also helps increase a sense of emotional stability so you can respond more intentionally instead of reacting on impulse.
Emotion Regulation can help if…
you experience emotions intensely
you find your emotions to feel unpredictable or long-lasting
you have mood swings or would identify as emotionally reactive
experience extreme emotions such as shame, depression, or rage
Interpersonal Effectiveness
Interpersonal Effectiveness helps you to develop skills to communicate clearly, set boundaries, ask for what you need, and maintain relationships while also respecting yourself and others.
Interpersonal Effectiveness can help if…
you struggle to set firm and consistent boundaries in relationships
you have a hard time telling someone they have hurt you
you struggle with saying no or asking for something
you are a people-pleaser
you are avoidant of conflict
What will a DBT Brief Look Like in Action?
Session 1: Intake Assessment
$375- 60mins
The Intake Assessment will involve questions aimed at evaluating your current coping skills and ability, the issues you want to address most with DBT Skills, and any applicable mental health or substance use concerns.
Session 2
$325- 60mins
The session following The Intake Assessment will involve a review of my recommendations of the skills I think you would best benefit from focusing on in the DBT Brief. I will also provide you with a lot of psychoeducation on DBT and you will gain access to your shared G-Drive.
Session 3-End
$325- 60mins
The subsequent sessions will involve a blend of learning and practicing a new skill and a review of the success of your practice. This will include reviewing your Coping Skills Practice Tracker, a spreadsheet you will fill out before and after practice of skills that will help us gain insights to the effectiveness of each skill.
You will have a secure, online G-Drive with exclusive access shared between you and me. This is where I will upload all the materials you will need for the DBT Brief that you can access anywhere at anytime through the Google Drive app. Access to this drive will never go away thus you can return to it in the future at any point when you might need a refresher!
DBT Coaching
You will also have regular access to me outside of sessions during the DBT Brief. This will be exclusive to coaching you through the use of skills, answering questions and clarification about skills, or helping you pick a skill to use for a specific situation. This way you can be confident that when you hit a snag in practice, you can have readied access to get your questions answered and keep motivation high! Coaching is an extra charge of $220 for 30mins and not a mandatory feature of the DBT Brief.