Weekly individual sessions serve to apply the DBT principles and skills to a client's life. Individual sessions offer the opportunity to engage in analysis of contributors to and reinforcers of behavior, to connect clients with skills relevant to their primary triggers, and to reinforce skill use.

Weekly skills group serves to teach clients the DBT skills in a classroom setting. Unlike process groups, where clients will develop relationships as a group by supporting and validating each other, these groups are very structured and focused on learning a skill. Group sizes typically run between 3 and 11 individuals. Not every therapist who does DBT offers this essential part. I partner with Southlake Counseling to provide this group component to my clients.

The 24/7 skills line is another critical component of adherent DBT. You can be as skillful as you like in your individual sessions, in skills class, or at work, and if those skills don't generalize to the home environment, that target behavior you want to change will not change. The skills line allows for clients to call when they are upset, wanting to reach for an ineffective coping behavior, and they are unsure what skills to use. This is not a phone call to check in, or to vent about a bad day—it's very much skills-focused. We will ask, “What are your urges and what skills have you used?” and then we can provide assistance with determining more skills to apply. These calls are typically fewer than fifteen minutes in length, as more in-depth processing takes place in individual sessions. The 24/7 skills line is not commonly provided by individual outpatient therapists, and this is a special part of doing therapy with this practice.

The consultation team is primarily for the therapist, and you benefit too. It helps ensure that I am the best DBT therapist possible for my clients. Consultation team is where I troubleshoot difficult clinical concerns, check out my case conceptualization, and get myself sorted so I can do better work with my clients. I attend team with a group of several other DBT providers.