Adolescent/Teen DBT Treatment
Do you have a teen who engages in what appears to be out of control behaviors and emotions, or alternatively, is isolated and barely speaks to you? They may be struggling with some pretty big emotions. If they do not know how to manage these emotions they could be struggling to manage the demands of school, having difficulty forming fulfilling and stable relationships with peers and their family, and establishing their self identity.
5 Components of Adolescent DBT Treatment
Enhance Motivation with Individual Therapy:
DBT individual therapy is focused on enhancing client motivation and helping clients to apply the skills to specific challenges and events in their lives. In the standard DBT model, individual therapy takes place once a week for as long as the client is in therapy, and it runs concurrently with DBT skills training.
Structure the Environment with Case Management in Individual Therapy:
Case management strategies help the teen manage his or her own life, such as their physical and social environments. The therapist applies the same dialectical, validation, and problem-solving strategies in order to teach the client to be his or her own case manager. This lets the therapist consult to the patient about what to do, and the therapist will only intervene on the client’s behalf when absolutely necessary.
2. Multi-Family DBT Skills Training Group for Adolescents
DBT Center of Long Beach offers a weekly 120-minute multi-family dialectical behavior therapy skills group for adolescents and their families, using the DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents. The multi-family group format is meant for adolescents who struggle to control their emotions and behaviors, accompanied by at least one guardian or caretaker. In this format, the caregiver learns the content side-by-side with their adolescent and the group provides a forum that can improve interactions and enhance closeness. It takes 24 weeks to complete one cycle through the five skill modules. We utilize the DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents in a weekly 2-hour, structured Skills Training Lesson.
3. Around The Clock Phone Coaching
Adolescents get access to their therapist for in-the-moment coaching on how to use the skills. Family members who join the skills training group get access to the leaders of their skills group for skills coaching as well.
4. Parent/Family Therapy
In order to develop a life that is worth living for your teen, it is crucial for them to feel like they have their own therapist who is not dictating the path of treatment, based on the parents request. This is why we will often make the clinical recommendation that the caregivers meet with another therapist for parent therapy or to facilitate family therapy. Our goal is to help everyone find a middle path.
5. Consultation Teams for Therapists