What Is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?
Dialectical behavior therapy in Mount Pleasant, WI traces back to psychologist Dr. Marsha Linehan. She created DBT to help those experiencing chronic suicidal thoughts and to treat borderline personality disorder (BPD). DBT grew out of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which looks at how thoughts shape feelings and actions. Linehan later added new skills for handling intense emotions, since standard CBT alone wasn’t always enough.
DBT centers on 4 core skills: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Mindfulness means noticing the present moment without judgment. Distress tolerance offers ways to get through a hard moment without making it worse. Emotion regulation teaches you to name feelings and manage their intensity. Interpersonal effectiveness builds skills to ask for needs clearly and set boundaries with others.
Mental Health and Substance Use Conditions DBT Can Treat
DBT can help you manage several mental health and substance use conditions no matter your age. Our outpatient programs at Axis serve adults 18 and older. The National Institute of Mental Health names DBT as a therapy developed for borderline personality disorder. A 2024 systematic review in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology found DBT-based therapy helpful for post-traumatic stress disorder.
According to another 2024 systematic review, DBT reduces symptoms of borderline personality disorder in many cases. DBT also eases emotional dysregulation tied to eating disorders like binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa. The same skills help steady mood for people living with bipolar disorder. Substance use disorder is part of this picture too, especially when it overlaps with another diagnosis.
How DBT Supports Recovery from Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
If substance use is part of your experience, DBT skills replace impulsive or reactive habits with steadier responses to stress. It also works well if a mental health condition and substance use co-occur for you. Dr. Marsha Linehan tested DBT in a 1999 clinical trial published in The American Journal on Addictions. Patients in the study had both borderline personality disorder and drug dependence. Relapse prevention remains a core part of this work in these cases.
If your focus is a mental health condition on its own, DBT works just as well for you. It eases emotion dysregulation and helps reduce symptoms tied to depression, bipolar disorder, trauma, and eating disorders. These skills also target the self-harm and suicidal thoughts that can surface with severe emotional distress. DBT was originally built to address exactly this. These benefits stand on their own, with no addiction diagnosis required.
DBT Treatment Structure and Programs at Axis
Axis Behavioral Health offers dialectical behavior therapy in Mount Pleasant, WI through 3 program categories. These include mental health programs, addiction programs, and dual diagnosis programs. If your focus is a mental health condition alone, you fit into this model. If substance use is part of your situation, you fit too. The same is true if you’re facing both at once. DBT skills training runs through each of these programs.
- Partial hospitalization program (PHP): The most intensive level of outpatient services, with several hours of therapy most days each week.
- Intensive outpatient program (IOP): A lighter schedule with fewer hours, made for more flexibility around work, school, or family life.
- Virtual: DBT delivered online, available within PHP or IOP when you need therapy from home.
Every level of DBT therapy in Mount Pleasant, WI gives you the same core model. Weekly individual therapy pairs with a weekly skills group and coaching between sessions, so each week feels familiar. The model mirrors work developed at the University of Washington’s Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics. DBT is also listed as an evidence-based program by the federal Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse.
Supporting a Family Member Considering DBT Therapy
You notice changes before anyone else does. Watching someone you love struggle with intense emotions or substance use can leave you unsure how to help. We help you learn how DBT skills work and how to respond in calmer, more helpful ways. Family involvement never replaces your loved one’s own choices in DBT therapy.
You can help simply by starting the conversation and offering to look into options together. We also offer family therapy sessions. These sessions give you and your loved one space to work through patterns together. Axis serves Mount Pleasant and the wider Racine County area, so help is close to home.
What Other Therapies Work Well Alongside DBT at Axis?
Axis pairs DBT with other therapies to build a complete plan around you. Your care team looks at what is driving your symptoms. It might be a past experience, an unsteady mood, or a need to practice new ways with others. From there, your therapist builds the rest of your plan so everything moves together around your DBT sessions. The goal is for each piece of your plan to reinforce the others, not compete for your time.
Trauma-Informed Care
Trauma-informed methods recognize past experiences can shape how you respond to stress today. Therapists trained in this approach create a sense of safety before asking you to revisit hard memories. Emotional safety carries into DBT sessions too. As a result, new skills become easier to practice. A trauma-informed approach avoids re-traumatizing you while still working toward real change. Our staff uses this approach to shape how they listen and pace sessions.
Medication Management
A psychiatric provider joins your DBT plan and reviews symptoms and medication needs alongside your progress in therapy sessions. You may benefit from medication for depression, anxiety, or mood swings, alongside DBT skills work. Medication decisions stay collaborative, with your own goals guiding the plan. Regular check-ins make it easy to adjust course as needs change.
Group Therapy
Group therapy brings a small group together so you can practice DBT skills in real time. Hearing how others handle similar struggles can make new skills feel more achievable. A therapist leads each session and keeps the group focused on hands-on practice. Group sessions also help you build connection with others working through similar challenges. For many, this becomes one of the most valued parts of DBT-based therapy.
Individual Therapy
Individual therapy gives you one-on-one time with a DBT therapist each week. Each session works through specific challenges from the past week and plans ahead. A therapist also helps track your progress and adjust the plan as needed. Individual sessions give you space for topics too personal for a group setting. Together, individual and group therapy sessions reinforce the same DBT skills from different angles.