Wake Kendall's Dialectical Behavior Therapy Program

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was developed by Marsha Linehan, Ph.D., as a treatment for individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder. DBT is an empirically-based, structured therapy that emphasizes both acceptance and change-oriented skills. The central idea in DBT is that individuals are doing the best they can and, at the same time, need to change. Clients are helped to move away from rigid, polarized thinking and to accept seemingly opposite truths to assist them in leading more effective, meaningful lives. Over the years, DBT has been extended to work with individuals who struggle with emotion regulation and tend to engage in self-destructive behaviors. For more information about DBT, visit behavioraltech.org.

Wake Kendall offers DBT for adolescents and adults according to the treatment protocol developed by Dr. Linehan. Clients typically make a one-year commitment to the program. DBT is considered a primary treatment; clients are required to suspend other primary therapies while they are in our program. That said, clients are expected to receive ongoing medication supervision throughout treatment.

• Weekly group skills training for adults: Clients attend one weekly instructional group with roughly ten participants and two professional leaders. The group lasts one hour and forty-five minutes. The topics covered are:

  Mindfulness: Strategies to increase awareness and self control
  
  Interpersonal Effectiveness: Strategies to attain personal goals in interpersonal situations while enhancing self respect and overall quality of relationships
  
  Emotion Regulation: Strategies to understand and manage emotions in effective, non-harmful ways
  
  Distress Tolerance: Strategies to accept reality and tolerate high levels of painful emotions

• Weekly individual therapy: Clients attend weekly individual therapy sessions, which last from 45 to 60 minutes. Individual therapists help clients identify meaningful goals and target specific behaviors to change. Clients keep a "diary card," a checklist for tracking thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and skills on a daily basis. During sessions, the therapist's role is to facilitate application of skills to daily life. Clients also move toward the goal of engaging in at least 20 hours of structured activity per week (paid work, volunteer work, or classes).
  
  
• Telephone coaching: Clients are encouraged to call their individual therapist for brief (five minute) skills-oriented coaching when they are experiencing difficulty applying skills.
  
  
• Treatment team: Individual therapists and group skills leaders meet on a weekly basis and work as a consultation team. Individual therapists collaborate closely with psycho-pharmacologists and other outside professionals involved in clients' care.
  

Wake Kendall's adolescent DBT program: The adolescent program teaches the same concepts and skills as the adult program, although the curriculum is modified to meet the needs of adolescents and their parents more effectively. Similar to the adult program, adolescents are in weekly individual therapy and can call their therapist for telephone coaching during the week. Adolescents and their parents attend the weekly group skills training. During the first hour, the adolescents meet with one therapist, and the parents meet with a second therapist. During the second part of the evening, both groups come together for skills training.

Payment: Group skills training is $80 per week for adults and $150 per week for adolescents (with their parents). Individual therapy sessions are $155 for a 45-minute session and $190 for a 60-minute session. There is no charge for telephone coaching. The Wake Kendall Group is not a participant in any insurance plan but will provide a bill suitable for insurance.

Intake Procedure:

We often have waiting lists for our DBT programs. The wait time is somewhat shorter for clients with daytime availability. In the interest of facilitating a smooth intake procedure, we ask that you proceed with the following steps:

If you are a parent of a prospective adolescent client, please call our intake coordinator: Adair Fox, 202-686-7699, ext. 68.

If you are a mental health professional, family member, or close friend calling behalf of a prospective client, we also ask that you call our intake coordinator, Adair Fox.

If you are an adult considering participation in our DBT program, the following steps are required:

1. Complete the attached application. This brief screening form is a preliminary tool for us to begin determining whether our DBT program is an appropriate treatment for you. It is not a substitute for a more thorough, in-person intake process. Please send this form to the following address: Attn: Adair Fox, The Wake Kendall Group, 5247 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington DC 20015. You are also welcome to fax the form: 202-362-9633. If you have difficulty completing the form, please do the best you can and call for help, if needed.
2. Once we receive your application, our intake coordinator will follow up with a brief phone call to review your form and address any questions that you may have about our program.
3. Unless it is clear from this brief screening that our DBT treatment is not appropriate, your name will be put on the waiting list. The wait time is highly variable and unpredictable (ranging from one week to one year). Please make sure you get the treatment you need in the interim.
4. We ask that you call Adair Fox every three weeks to express your continued interest. She will return your calls and, with time, be able to give some closer estimates regarding possible start dates. Once it becomes clear that we will have an opening in a group, we will assign you to an individual therapist with whom you can schedule an initial intake appointment.
   
   

We strive to give you as much advance notice as possible so you can plan accordingly and, at the same time, appreciate your patience with our intake procedure.

Download Application for Adult DBT Program here.