Who Is Right for DBT Group?

One of the distinguishing features of Dialectic Behavioral Therapy is DBT group. DBT group is a skills-based group to help those within the group acquire coping skills and practice these skills in order to better their quality of life. At Mindful Healing we offer two forms of DBT group: our teen DBT group, and our graduate DBT group. During your intake session, your therapist might recommend DBT group as a part of your child’s treatment plan. A question we often get however is why would DBT work for my child? What makes DBT right for somebody? The most honest and simple answer is that DBT group works for everyone. Because of its skills focused nature, DBT group can help anyone develop skills and coping mechanisms that they need in order to improve their life. 

Nonetheless, we do not recommend every single patient to DBT group, so who do we decide is truly the best fit, or can benefit the most from DBT group? In order to answer this question, we also need to ask the question who was DBT designed for? 

DBT was originally designed to be a multi touch point therapy combining both a skills and strengths based approach with CBT and validation. This form of therapy includes individual therapy provided weekly, group therapy provided weekly, and often parent involvement or familial therapy /coaching. This framework of DBT is supported by research as one of the most effective options for high needs, high risk clients. Its original focus was to address borderline personality disorder symptoms, extreme depression, suicidality, and life interfering anxiety, among other severe presentations of mental illness. Because of how effective formal DBT has proven to be in these categories, it is often recommended for anyone who is struggling with similar or adjacent situations. This form of DBT differs from DBT-informed, which does not include group. 

This being said, there are several reasons your therapist may recommend that your team join DBT group. These reasons vary client to client, but most commonly we recommend DBT group for clients who are struggling with severe depression, significant anxiety, suicidality, self harm, borderline personality traits, bipolar presentations, other clinically significant conditions. DBT group allows us to essentially fast track these clients towards the skills that will help them the most and can replace harmful existing coping mechanisms, and can address therapy interfering behaviors, such a suicidality or self harm. 

So, to address the overall question of who is right for DBT group, the answer is still everyone. There are very few clients that therapists would recommend do not enter DBT group, and this is often based on age or specifics in their presentation. However, the clients who most need or may be required to attend DBT group through their treatment plan are often those with significant clinical presentations that put them at risk. If you have questions about why your child was recommended to DBT group, or if your child could benefit from DBT group, please feel free to reach out to Mindful Healing.