DBT Skills Groups

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills Groups at Balance and Potential Therapy

Registration for Balance & Potential DBT Groups is ongoing and we are accepting new clients. Call 678-644-0039 or email us at info@BalanceAndPotential.com for our current group schedule.

DBT skills group at Balance and Potential Therapy in Alpharetta, GA

What is a DBT Skills Group?

In DBT skills training groups you focus on learning a new, very specific set of skills that will help you cope with stressors and challenges in a more effective way

DBT Skills groups at Balance and Potential Therapy provide a supportive place for learning and practicing cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness skills with other people. During these groups, we do talk about how to use the skills in your life. However, your personal therapy goals are the focus of individual therapy sessions. Therefore, people attending these groups typically also attend weekly individual counseling sessions as well.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy or DBT is designed to help clients regulate their mood, control impulses, increase assertiveness, and tolerate distress. Clients learn cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness skills to better identify and manage their emotions. They then practice applying these skills, on their own and in a group setting. This helps the client better tolerate difficult life events and improve their ability to interact well with others. These skill sets help build the foundation for a life that feels more meaningful and worthwhile.

Who can benefit from DBT Skills groups?

To be honest, anyone can manage their lives more effectively by learning DBT skills. That said, people who are referred to DBT Skills groups are generally referred because they would benefit from learning more effective, healthy ways of managing strong emotions. At Balance and Potential Therapy, we offer DBT groups for the following age groups:

• Teen/Adolescent (13-17 years)
• Adult (18 years and up)
• Family & Friends (Parents and other supportive adults)
• Pre-teens (a modified DBT-informed Coping Skills group for ages 10-12)
• Adult DBT Graduates group
• Teen DBT Graduates group

The 4 types of DBT skills

While many people begin DBT saying their goal is to stop specific behaviors (self harm, suicidal thoughts, aggression, disordered eating, substance abuse, etc), it’s important to know that this happens by INCREASING other behaviors. Our assumption is that you were engaging in the harmful behaviors to solve some sort of problem. Therefore, if we want you to stop that behavior, you need to have a new, healthy behavior to engage in instead. DBT Skills training groups teach you these new, healthy behaviors. There are four different types of DBT Skills that you will learn to use including:

• Mindfulness and the Middle Path
• Emotion Regulation
• Distress Tolerance
• Interpersonal Effectiveness

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is an important concept in DBT. It promotes full awareness of your present moment (i.e. thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations) without judgment and without trying to change it. Being mindful will help you focus your mind, direct attention, better understand your feelings, validate yourself and others, and recognize the dialectic. The dialectic means that you can accept two things that seem really different as both being true at the same time. This means that you can accept that what is happening in your life and how you are feeling now, and still want to make positive changes for your future.

What is Emotion Regulation?

This means to take control of one’s emotions. When you have a hard time controlling extreme emotions, you may exhibit impulsive or ineffective behaviors. The goal of emotion regulation is to better understand emotions, reduce emotional vulnerability, and decrease suffering.

What is Distress Tolerance?

Pain is a part of life. Being unable to cope with pain and the way it makes you feel, may lead to impulsive or destructive behavior. Distress Tolerance helps people better cope with painful or distressing moments in their life in more effective ways, so they will not make the situation worse.

What is Interpersonal Effectiveness?

Interpersonal Effectiveness means simply building and maintaining positive relationships. These skills help clients balance their wants and needs with the demands and needs of others. This helps them develop self-respect.

What to expect from DBT Skills Groups at Balance and Potential Therapy in Alpharetta, GA

Pre teens learning DBT skills at Balance and Potential Therapy in Alpharetta, GA

Our groups are now “hybrid,” which means that they are in-person, plus you can attend live on Zoom televideo if you prefer. Our office is at 5755 North Point Parkway, Suite 79, Alpharetta, GA 30022, just off Route 400.

Call for more information or ask to schedule a free “Introduction to DBT” orientation session!

Groups meet once a week for an hour. Every group client needs an individual psychotherapist, whether the therapist is at Balance & Potential or offsite. The individual therapist supports the client in applying the DBT skills learned in group to the client’s specific, everyday life. Individual DBT therapists are available at Balance & Potential. Clients with offsite individual psychotherapists are also welcome in our groups.

If you are seeing an offsite therapist and need “adherent DBT”, your therapist should be trained to perform adherent DBT. This means that they are trained to help their patients integrate DBT skills into every aspect of treatment and their lives in a very specific way. If you already have a therapist, and they are not trained in adherent DBT, it may be wise to temporarily transfer to a trained DBT therapist during Stage One of your DBT treatment. If you wish, you can return to seeing your therapist during Stage Two. Feel free to call and ask us about the difference between “adherent DBT” and just learning DBT skills. We can assess your needs and let you know what we recommend.

At Balance & Potential, parents or guardians are encouraged to attend a Family and Friends DBT group. This will allow you to learn the skills just like your loved one. Research says that having a significant adult learn DBT skills is much more effective because all family members are learning, practicing, and using the same skills.

Clients commit to and pay for weekly DBT skills groups. There are 3 different modules. Each 8-week module covers Mindfulness plus one of the other key DBT behaviors, with the full skills curriculum running for 24 weeks.

For dates and more information about our current DBT skills groups, click the links below:

• DBT Groups and Therapy

Emotion Regulation

• Adult DBT- Emotion Regulation
• Family and Friends DBT-Emotion Regulation
• Teen DBT- Emotion Regulation

Interpersonal Effectiveness

• Adult DBT- Interpersonal Effectiveness
• Family and Friends DBT- Interpersonal Effectiveness
• Teen DBT- Interpersonal Effectiveness
• DBT Coping Skills Groups for Pre-Teen Interpersonal Effectiveness

Distress Tolerance

• Adult DBT Distress Tolerance
• Family and Friends DBT Distress Tolerance
• Teen DBT Distress Tolerance

Begin DBT skills groups in the Atlanta area

Are you ready to learn DBT skills with your peers in a group setting where you will be supported while you practice what you have learned? Then, a DBT skills class at Balance and Potential in Alpharetta, GA may be a great choice to set you up for success using the new skills you have learned! To begin, follow these three easy steps:

1. Contact our office to set up an appointment or a free initial consultation.
2. Begin DBT orientation with one of our caring therapists
3. Join a DBT group to learn new skills to help you face the challenges in your life!

Other Counseling Services Offered at Balance and Potential Therapy in Alpharetta, GA

In addition to DBT Skills groups, Balance and Potential Therapy offers individual DBT therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Positive Psychology, play therapy, family therapy, anxiety treatment, depression counseling, couples therapy, and mindfulness training. For more information on how we can help you, contact our office.

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