Teen DBT Program
At Front Range Treatment Center
What is Teen DBT?
Teen DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) is a specialized form of therapy designed to support teens who experience intense emotions and engage in troubling or risky behaviors. If this sounds like your teen, Teen DBT may provide the tools and support they need to create meaningful change.
DBT for teens shares the foundational principles of our adult DBT program but is tailored specifically for adolescents. One key difference is the active inclusion of parents in the treatment process. Research consistently shows that parental involvement significantly improves outcomes when teens face mental health challenges. By participating in the therapy process, parents gain skills and insights to support their teen’s progress, creating a collaborative path toward healing and growth.
As a form of cognitive behavior therapy, Teen DBT is a well-researched and highly effective treatment. It focuses on teaching teens skills in emotional regulation, mindfulness, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. These practical tools help teens manage their emotions, navigate relationships, and make healthier decisions.
If your teen is struggling to make positive changes, DBT could provide the framework they need to build resilience and create a more balanced, fulfilling life.
How do I know if DBT is right for my teen?
If your teen is struggling with any of these issues, DBT may be the answer:
Research shows Dialectical Behavior Therapy can be very helpful for many of the common issues young adults face. At FRTC, our teen DBT therapists are experienced at helping teens that haven’t been helped by other forms of therapy.
DBT can help such teens learn to better regulate their emotions, choose more effective behaviors, and build more rewarding relationships with friends and family.
Teen DBT Program Components
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DBT Skills Group
In skills Group, teens (along with one or more parents) learn and practice DBT skills together. The group are led by two trained therapists who provide education, coaching, and feedback on how to apply DBT skills to the real-life situations young adults face
The teen and parent skills class are divided into five sections:
Interpersonal effectiveness: Developing effective communication and relationship-building skills, including setting boundaries and asking for what you need.
Emotion regulation: Learning to identify and manage emotions in a healthy and effective way, including coping with intense or overwhelming emotions.
Distress tolerance: Developing skills to manage intense emotions and difficult situations without resorting to harmful or destructive behaviors.
Walking the middle path: Finding a balance between opposing ideas or behaviors, and learning to navigate the complexities of life in a more balanced and effective way.
This class meets once a week for two hours for approximately six months. We have in-person and virtual class options.
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Individual Sessions
In individual sessions, teens receive support and learn to apply the DBT skills they learn in DBT Skills Group to the unique issues they are facing.
Teens works one-on-one with their therapist to develop personalized treatment goals and strategies. The therapist helps the person to identify their strengths and challenges, develop coping skills, and practice applying new skills to real-life situations.
A vital part of DBT treatment, individual appointments are weekly, for 50 mins.
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Phone Coaching
Phone coaching allows teens to access their therapist outside of scheduled therapy sessions to receive skills use guidance when they are struggling with intense emotions or difficult situations. This helps to prevent crises, and helps teens apply the DBT-A skills they are learning outside the classroom and therapy environment to all areas of their life.
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Parent Coaching or Parent Therapy (Optional)
Parent coaching provides the opportunity to receive additional instruction from a parent coach through individual sessions and phone coaching.
The coach offers support and parenting strategies to assist parents in reaching their goals and generalizing the skills learned in the group. There is a special focus on behavioral training principals, based on time-tested and research proven techniques, to help you better help your teen.
Individual therapy for the caregivers is also an option, when you need extra support
Contact us today to request an appointment,
or a free phone consultation with a DBT therapist.
Parental Involvement
and Support in Teen DBT
Parent involvement is crucial. The research is clear: without parental involvement, treatment with adolescents is unlikely to be effective.
In other forms of therapy, parents are often not included. If your teen has been struggling for a while, and you are switching to dialectical behavior therapy from another form of treatment, you may not be used to being included. In comprehensive teen DBT, parents or guardians attend the DBT skills classes along with their teen.
We like all persons that share primary responsibility for a teen to attend, if possible. In addition, parents attend a one time introductory seminar, and many parents choose to undertake additional parent training or therapy for themselves.
How can DBT Help My Teen?
Dialectical behavior therapy has been shown to be helpful for many common issues that young people struggle with. Our cliniciains are here to help you address your teen’s behaviors, help them improve their relationships, and get their life back on track.
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Some young adults experience their emotions more intensely than others, stay upset longer, and have a harder time calming down than other kids their age. Intense emotions can lead to suffering, avoidance of responsibilities, and ineffective, even self-destructive coping mechanisms.
DBT teaches high school age teens skills to identify and regulate their emotions. This can be particularly helpful for teens who struggle with intense or overwhelming emotions. Our teen DBT therapists can help your teen learn to better regulate their emotions, so they feel more in control, and have the ability to make smarter choices. DBT also incorporates mindfulness practices, which can help teens develop greater awareness and acceptance of their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy was originally designed to treat borderline personality disorder, which is characterized by difficulty with emotion regulation. It has since been shown to be helpful for all issues where regulating emotions is an issue.
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Many teens struggle with forming healthy, stable interpersonal relationships. When a teen struggles, the whole family is often affected. A major goal in DBT is improving the quality of existing relationships. DBT includes skills training in interpersonal effectiveness, which can help teens improve their communication and relationship-building skills.
Teen DBT clients learn how to balance their needs with the needs of others, communicate more effectively with authority figures, and the skills required to protect and nourish their relationship with family members.
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Sometimes, teens engage in concerning behaviors that, as a parent, you know could have long-term negative consequences. This includes anything from skipping school and to risky or even dangerous behaviors that need to be addressed immediately, such as substance abuse, or other risky behaviors.
Another group of common symptoms can be very distressing to others: suicidal ideation, threatening to commit suicide, attempting suicide, or engaging in self-injury (such as cutting). These issues are common for teens, and not talked about enough. Teen DBT is the best treatment for self-injury and suicidality, and if these symptoms are present they are addressed first. DBT helps teens learn to tolerate and cope with distressing situations and emotions, without engaging in harmful behaviors like self-harm, and DBT includes specific skills and strategies to help teens manage self-harm or suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
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Often, teens with emotion regulation issues can do or say hurtful things, act disobedient & disrespectful, or refuse to do what is required of them (at home, at school, or elsewhere). It can be very painful to watch a child engage in such concerning behaviors. A cornerstone goal of DBT is behavioral control.
Teen DBT clients learn to reduce impulsivity, weigh the long term vs. short term consequences of their actions, increase self-control, and practice saying no to their peers in high school.
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"Walking the middle path" is a concept in DBT-A (Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Teens) that encourages individuals to find a balance between two opposing ideas or behaviors. It is based on the principle of dialectics, which involves finding a synthesis or balance between two seemingly opposite perspectives.
In DBT, walking the middle path involves finding a balance between, for example, acceptance and change. This means accepting oneself and the current situation, while also working to make changes and improvements in one's life. It is a way of finding a middle ground between two extremes, such as black-and-white thinking or all-or-nothing behavior.
For example, someone who struggles with binge eating may feel guilty and ashamed after eating a large amount of food, and may feel compelled to restrict their eating in response. Walking the middle path in this situation might involve acknowledging and accepting the feelings of guilt and shame, while also working to make changes in their eating behaviors in a gradual and sustainable way, rather than resorting to extreme dieting or restriction.
Another example might be someone who struggles with intense emotions and has a tendency to either suppress their emotions or become overwhelmed by them. Walking the middle path in this situation might involve learning to acknowledge and accept their emotions, while also learning to regulate and manage them in a healthy and effective way, rather than simply trying to avoid or suppress them.
Young people often respond to stressful situation with problematic behaviors. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy can help adolescents make positive changes by teaching them not to go to extremes.
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In teen DBT, we provide you with a new approach and new tools young people are more responsive to. We can explore this in greater depth through “parent coaching.”
Parents may also decide to supplement their teen’s DBT-A treatment with supportive counseling for themselves.