Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
Concrete skills for when emotions arrive faster and harder than you can manage.
Some people experience emotion more intensely and for longer than others, and reach a point of overwhelm faster. That is not a character flaw, and it is not something to be talked out of. But it does mean the usual advice — calm down, think it through — arrives far too late to be useful.
DBT’s answer is to teach specific, practisable skills, and to get them in place before the next crisis rather than during it.
The four areas
Mindfulness builds the ability to notice what is happening without immediately reacting to it. Distress tolerance is for the moments when a situation cannot be fixed right now and the task is to get through it without making it worse. Emotion regulation works on understanding emotions, reducing vulnerability to them, and changing the ones that do not fit the facts. Interpersonal effectiveness covers asking for things, saying no, and keeping relationships and self-respect intact while doing it.
What we offer, and what we do not
A comprehensive DBT programme is a specific, intensive structure: individual sessions, a weekly skills group, between-session phone coaching, and a consultation team supporting the therapists. Rooted Therapy does not run one.
What Anita and Laura offer is individual therapy informed by DBT — the skills, the dialectical stance, and the emphasis on practising rather than just discussing. For many people that is exactly right. If what you need is the full programme, we would rather tell you early and help you find it.
Where it is useful
DBT skills are used with emotional intensity, self-harm and other self-destructive coping, impulsivity, chronic emptiness, and relationships that swing between closeness and rupture. They sit well alongside CBT and EFT, both of which our therapists also draw on.
Who you would work with
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MA, RP
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MSW, RSW
Common questions
Do you offer a full DBT programme?
No, and this is worth being clear about. A full programme includes individual therapy, a weekly skills group, phone coaching and a therapist consultation team. We offer individual therapy that draws on DBT skills and principles. If you need a comprehensive programme, say so and we will help you find one.
Is DBT only for borderline personality disorder?
It was developed for that, and the evidence there is strongest, but the skills have since been applied much more broadly — to intense emotions, self-destructive coping, and relationship difficulties generally.
What does 'dialectical' actually mean?
Holding two apparently opposed things at once: you are doing the best you can, and you need to do things differently. Most people are pushed toward one or the other. DBT insists on both.
Ready when you are.
Send us a message and we will get back to you. If you would rather talk first, a free 15-minute consultation is always an option.
Already know who you would like to see? Book directly online.