Dialectical Behavior (DBT) Therapists in 94130
Regina A. Lising
Marriage & Family Therapist, MA, LMFT
Verified Verified
San Francisco, CA 94130 (Online Only)
You may be experiencing feelings of brokenness and suffering from devastating loss. You may have stories that need to be explored in search of healing and restoration. You may be ready to address these challenges with knowledgeable care, holistic engagement, and compassionate understanding. Finding the courage to share your stories of harm and pain is the beginning of your healing and inner peace. If you are seeking guidance as you navigate through your healing journey, it may be time to take the next step and reach out for help.
You may be experiencing feelings of brokenness and suffering from devastating loss. You may have stories that need to be explored in search of healing and restoration. You may be ready to address these challenges with knowledgeable care, holistic engagement, and compassionate understanding. Finding the courage to share your stories of harm and pain is the beginning of your healing and inner peace. If you are seeking guidance as you navigate through your healing journey, it may be time to take the next step and reach out for help.
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Dialectical Behavior (DBT) Therapists
Who is DBT for?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is designed for people who experience extreme emotional suffering because they lack the skills of emotion regulation and distress tolerance. The basic affliction can underlie a wide range of conditions, from borderline and other personality disorders to PTSD and treatment-resistant anxiety and depression. The therapy is helpful to those whose emotional reactivity is so intense it is disruptive to everyday functioning and leads to frequent crises.
Why do people need DBT?
The ability to regulate emotions is a core psychological skill that enables people to function in life and pay attention to the world outside themselves; it is consistently associated with well-being. DBT is designed to help people learn how to manage and regulate their emotions. Originally developed to treat people with borderline personality disorder whose extreme emotional suffering led to self-harming behavior and suicide attempts, the therapy is now applied to other conditions involving emotion dysregulation, particularly when other treatments have failed.
What happens in DBT?
Individuals meet weekly with their therapist to discuss their experiences relating to moods, behavior, and skills. Using checklists they maintain, they review emotional experiences and positive practices they engage in. The diaries help individuals discern what led up to a specific problem encountered, this is followed by discussion of the consequences of their actions. In addition, individuals may meet in class-like small groups to learn skills such as mindfulness, emotion regulation and distress tolerance.
How long does DBT last?
Because it is intended to establish long-lasting behavioral change among those with persistent problems, DBT is designed to last six months to a year. DBT includes both weekly sessions of individual therapy and weekly skills-training sessions conducted in small groups. Studies of DBT have documented improvement within a year of treatment, particularly in controlling self-harmful behavior; nevertheless, individuals may require therapy for several years.