Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

DBT Is A Powerful Therapeutic Modality

At Balanced Life Therapy, we strive to create a compassionate and collaborative therapeutic environment where you feel heard, understood, and supported. Guided by experienced therapists, as a group member, you will be encouraged to share your experiences, gain insight, and develop meaningful connections with others. Through this process, you’ll have a chance to experience greater self-awareness, emotional balance, and confidence in navigating daily life with a stronger sense of stability and presence.

What Is DBT?

DBT therapy is a highly structured talk therapy designed to help people manage intense emotions, reduce self-destructive behaviors, and build a meaningful life. Developed by psychologist Marsha Linehan, it combines cognitive-behavioral techniques with mindfulness and the acceptance of opposing realities. That is why the term “dialectical” is involved.

DBT groups are powerful because they provide a structured, supportive environment for you to learn and practice crucial coping skills, like mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness, alongside peers.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy groups can help with anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder (BPD), PTSD and trauma symptoms, substance abuse, and eating disorders, among other issues.

Structure Of DBT Groups

During sessions, we will engage in a number of activities and approaches including:

• Mindfulness, which encourages you to live more in the present moment, as well as increase awareness of your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, urges, and behaviours without judgment
• Distress tolerance, involving being able to manage, withstand, or resist negative emotions and impulsive reactions to discomfort
• Emotional regulation, which includes naming and understanding emotions, decreasing the frequency of unpleasant emotions, vulnerability to emotions, and emotional suffering
• Interpersonal effectiveness, which involves communicating needs, setting boundaries, balancing the give and take in relationships, as well as navigating conflicts while maintaining self-respect

What the time commitment and schedule will look like:

• DBT Group workshop duration is 10 weeks, with 1 session per week
• Each group session runs from 60 to 90 minutes
• The cost is $90 per session

Handouts will be provided, and you are encouraged to bring additional writing materials that suit your learning style. Over the course of the program, you will learn how to survive emotional pain in the moment through self-soothing techniques, radical acceptance, distraction strategies, and crisis survival plans.

You’ll find that you can create and build more stability in relationships and daily life. By gaining insight into emotional patterns you will be able to reduce your emotional vulnerability, increase positive emotional experiences, and cope effectively with anger, anxiety, guilt, shame, and more.