Clinical modality
Springfield, MO · In-person & telehealth
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Build the four core skills that make lasting recovery possible.
DBT was originally developed for borderline personality disorder and has become one of the most effective treatments for addiction, trauma, and emotional dysregulation. Its four skill modules — mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness — address the root-level deficits that drive relapse.
- Format
- Skills group + individual
- Modules
- 4 core skill sets
- Used in
- PHP · IOP · Outpatient
- Developed for
- BPD, trauma, addiction
The four DBT skill modules.
DBT's power comes from four interconnected skill sets — each targeting a different dimension of the emotional and behavioral dysregulation that underlies addiction and mental health disorders.
Mindfulness
The foundation of all DBT skills. Mindfulness teaches you to observe your thoughts and emotions without judgment, creating the space to choose responses rather than react automatically. In addiction recovery, this is the first line of defense against impulsive substance use.
Distress Tolerance
Crisis survival strategies that help you get through moments of intense emotional pain without making things worse. Techniques like TIPP, ACCEPTS, and self-soothe skills give you a toolkit for riding out cravings and emotional crises without resorting to substances.
Emotional Regulation
Skills for understanding, labeling, and changing intense emotions before they spiral into destructive behavior. Emotion regulation is central to addiction recovery — most relapse is emotion-driven, not purely craving-driven.
Interpersonal Effectiveness
Structured communication skills for asking for what you need, maintaining relationships under stress, and setting boundaries without damaging connections. Many clients report this as the module that transforms their relationships most visibly.
DBT at MBH — what the process looks like.
DBT at Missouri Behavioral Health is fully structured — individual therapy, group skills training, and between-session support are all coordinated as a single treatment system. Here is what a typical DBT treatment experience involves.
Individual DBT session
Weekly one-on-one sessions with your DBT therapist focus on applying skills to the specific situations in your life — reviewing diary cards, identifying target behaviors, and problem-solving barriers to skill use.
DBT skills group
A structured, classroom-style group (not a process group) where skills are taught systematically — one module at a time, with homework practice between sessions. Groups typically meet weekly for 2–2.5 hours.
Between-session homework
DBT is a skills-based model — learning happens between sessions. Diary cards track emotions, behaviors, and skill use daily. Homework assignments apply module skills to real-life situations before the next group.
Phone coaching availability
In standard DBT, clients can contact their individual therapist between sessions for brief crisis coaching — applying skills in the moment rather than waiting until the next scheduled session.
Who DBT helps most.
DBT was designed for people who feel emotions more intensely than others — and whose behavioral responses to those emotions are causing serious harm to their lives.
Borderline Personality Disorder
DBT was originally developed for BPD and remains the gold-standard treatment for the intense emotional dysregulation that characterizes this diagnosis.
PTSD & complex trauma
The distress tolerance and mindfulness modules directly address the hyperreactivity and avoidance that define trauma responses.
Addiction with emotional dysregulation
For clients whose substance use is driven by emotional flooding, boredom, or intolerance of discomfort, DBT skills are directly protective against relapse.
Self-harm history
DBT reduces self-harming behavior by giving clients functional alternatives for managing overwhelming emotional states.
Intense mood swings
Whether from bipolar disorder, cyclothymia, or emotionally unstable patterns, DBT's regulation skills create more stable emotional baselines.
Relationship difficulties
The interpersonal effectiveness module is particularly transformative for clients whose relationships have been severely damaged by addiction or emotional dysregulation.
Insurance typically covers DBT.
DBT is recognized as an evidence-based treatment and is covered by most major insurance plans under mental health and substance use disorder benefits. We verify your benefits before treatment begins — at no cost to you.
Frequently asked questions
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive cognitive-behavioral treatment developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan. The term 'dialectical' refers to the core balance DBT strikes: accepting yourself as you are while simultaneously working to change the behaviors that are making your life unworkable. It is structured around four skill modules — mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness — delivered through individual therapy, skills groups, and between-session coaching.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy within your full treatment plan.
Therapy at Missouri Behavioral Health doesn't exist in isolation. Dialectical Behavior Therapy is delivered as part of a comprehensive, individualized treatment plan — integrated with your level of care, psychiatric support, and other modalities into a unified clinical approach.
Individualized treatment plan
Your therapist collaborates with your full clinical team to ensure DBT objectives align with your broader recovery goals.
Regular clinical reviews
Treatment plans are reviewed and updated as you progress — your therapy evolves with you through each phase of recovery.
Continuity across levels of care
As you step down from PHP to IOP to outpatient, your therapeutic relationship continues — no disruption, no re-starting.
Also Available
Other therapies at MBH.
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Admission coordinators available 24/7 — confidential, HIPAA-compliant.