Adolescent and Family DBT

Adolescence is a time of change and often a rocky road for children and their families. But sometimes it is more than that. Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a comprehensive treatment that has been shown to be effective in:

• Helping clients stop self-harming behavior including drug and alcohol abuse
• Decreasing frequency and length of hospitalizations
• Helping participants learn more effective ways of coping with their emotions
• Increasing skills in creating and maintaining healthy relationships
• Decreasing the negative effects of past traumatic events
• Increasing self-acceptance and respect

DBT can be helpful for:

• Families facing frequent and seemingly irresolvable conflict
• Adolescents experiencing extreme difficulty regulating hteir emotions
• Adolescents involved in repeated impulsive, self-destructive behavior
• Adolescents experiencing repeated hospitalizations or outpatient treatment which has not seemed to bring about sustainable change
• Parents and adolescents feeling helpless to get things back on track and facing the future with dread, not hope

The program includes:

• Weekly individual and family therapy
• Weekly two-hour skills training group—parallel adolescent and parent groups, learning the same skills, meet together every third week
• Telephone coaching on skills use available to adolescents and parents
• Medication evaluation and follow-up

For more information, call 413.775.4728.