Dialectical Behavior Therapy Program (DBT)

Group Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

 Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), can be particularly effective in facilitating treatment progress simply because of the natural dynamics that occur when individuals work together in therapy.

Comprehensive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is the treatment of choice for individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and those with suicidal behaviors including self-injury. This treatment is uniquely good as a treatment for individuals struggling with intense emotions, excessive relational conflict, extreme thinking, and/or destructive behaviors. Pauquette offers a comprehensive DBT program for adults, adolescents, and Children.

Program Mission Statement

The Pauquette Center as a whole and our DBT program are committed to providing compassionate care to members of our Wisconsin communities. Our program assists clients in achieving a life worth living with a team of therapists that will stand side by side with each of them in their journey to find that life.

Diversity Statement

Our DBT program values the uniqueness of all people and strives to provide a treatment environment that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive for all people regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical ability, learning style, learning needs, and any other cultural factors. We are committed to providing culturally responsive care. We are dedicated to ongoing learning that will help meet the needs of underrepresented individuals and populations. We strive to deliver and continuously improve services in which all our clients can see themselves achieving their goals.

To this end, we feel it is greatly important to address barriers to these goals including any activity in treatment that may result in exclusion or a compromised perception of safety. Derogatory or abusive statements or behavior toward anyone in our care will not be tolerated and will be addressed with the focus on responding to harm in ways that expand understanding, growth, compassion, and safety for all.

Our Adults Program

For individuals 18 years and older (18 year olds must be out of high school)  includes two one hour groups per week and one hour of individual therapy with a DBT clinician. Clients also have access to phone coaching with their therapist between sessions and their therapist participates regularly in consultation with the other DBT providers on the team. In our comprehensive DBT program, all clients have a treatment team of competent and well-trained DBT providers to help them meet their goals. Group skills training teaches clients skills in areas of mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness and emotion regulation that they both learn and practice between sessions to help with use in everyday life. Phone coaching is available to help clients learn to apply skills in their real-life situations closer to the time that they’re experiencing difficulty. The goal of DBT is to help clients move closer to their life worth living goals by reducing the extremes and obstacles in living and increasing skillful and effective behaviors that enhance their lives.

Our Adolescent Program

For individuals 13+, however, multifamily group participation serves individuals 15+ and younger adolescents will likely be served by individual providers rather than in multifamily group settings. Clients will participate in a once weekly 2 hour skills training group. Both the adolescent and a caregiver must be prepared to participate in all groups. Adolescents also meet with a DBT provider individually weekly for an hour, with intermittent family sessions provided as needed. Caregivers may have a coach who they meet with as well and may also be assigned their own individual therapist if needed. Adolescents and their caregivers also have access to skills coaching by phone between sessions and their providers participate in weekly consultation with other DBT providers in this program.

Our DBT for Children Program

This program requires a greater commitment from caregivers than from the child themselves and the foundational assumption of DBT-C (DBT for children) is that the behavior of the child is irrelevant until the environment is prepared to help them change. Caregivers learn a number of foundational skills about validation, acceptance, and learning/behavior change to create a validating and supportive environment for their child to grow as well as helping them to stay regulated in the presence of difficult behavioral concerns. Most caregivers participate in the once weekly “parent training” group that meets for one hour per week in addition to working individually with a DBT-C therapist. After foundational skills are learned, the child will likely be incorporated into their own weekly sessions while the caregiver sessions continue.

Our Referral Process

Once a referral is submitted, it is automatically sent to someone internally to gather additional information and schedule for a one-hour screening with one of our DBT clinicians. The purpose of the screening is to share some basic information about the program and gather some basic information from clients to determine if they meet the basic requirements of the program and also maintain an interest in it. Once the screening is completed, the information gathered in the screening is shared with the entire DBT team to assign a clinician to proceed with the process. This meeting happens the first Thursday of every month. At that meeting, a client is either assigned to a clinician (if one is available) to proceed with scheduling or, if no clinician is immediately available, the client is placed on the waitlist.  Clients are removed from the waiting list and assigned to a clinician in the order that they are received. Once the client is assigned to a DBT provider, they complete a DBT-specific intake and another 3-5 sessions of “pre-treatment.” The purpose of pre-treatment is to provide clients information about DBT, our program and expectations as well as to help clients determine if they believe the program will be a good fit for them and if they’re ready and willing to make the needed commitments. If clients are already established with a non-DBT provider, they should remain active with their current therapist throughout this process until the end of pre-treatment when they are fully committed to and enrolled in the program.

  • If you are having problems with this form, please contact our Whitewater office at 262-473-0670.

Related Articles and Interviews about DBT:

Listen to the interview with, WI Public Radio, about DBT with our Psychologist, Dr. Lesley Chapin. 

Interview with Channel 7 WSAW-TV, about DBT with our Psychologist, Dr. Lesley Chapin.

Related Articles and Interviews about DBT:

Listen to the interview with, WI Public Radio, about DBT with our Psychologist, Dr. Lesley Chapin. 

Interview with Channel 7 WSAW-TV, about DBT with our Psychologist, Dr. Lesley Chapin.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy Program (DBT)

Group Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

 Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), can be particularly effective in facilitating treatment progress simply because of the natural dynamics that occur when individuals work together in therapy.

Comprehensive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is the treatment of choice for individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and those with suicidal behaviors including self-injury. This treatment is uniquely good as a treatment for individuals struggling with intense emotions, excessive relational conflict, extreme thinking, and/or destructive behaviors. Pauquette offers a comprehensive DBT program for adults, adolescents, and Children.

Program Mission Statement

The Pauquette Center as a whole and our DBT program are committed to providing compassionate care to members of our Wisconsin communities. Our program assists clients in achieving a life worth living with a team of therapists that will stand side by side with each of them in their journey to find that life.

Diversity Statement

Our DBT program values the uniqueness of all people and strives to provide a treatment environment that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive for all people regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical ability, learning style, learning needs, and any other cultural factors. We are committed to providing culturally responsive care. We are dedicated to ongoing learning that will help meet the needs of underrepresented individuals and populations. We strive to deliver and continuously improve services in which all our clients can see themselves achieving their goals.

To this end, we feel it is greatly important to address barriers to these goals including any activity in treatment that may result in exclusion or a compromised perception of safety. Derogatory or abusive statements or behavior toward anyone in our care will not be tolerated and will be addressed with the focus on responding to harm in ways that expand understanding, growth, compassion, and safety for all.

Our Adults Program

For individuals 18 years and older (18 year olds must be out of high school)  includes two one hour groups per week and one hour of individual therapy with a DBT clinician. Clients also have access to phone coaching with their therapist between sessions and their therapist participates regularly in consultation with the other DBT providers on the team. In our comprehensive DBT program, all clients have a treatment team of competent and well-trained DBT providers to help them meet their goals. Group skills training teaches clients skills in areas of mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness and emotion regulation that they both learn and practice between sessions to help with use in everyday life. Phone coaching is available to help clients learn to apply skills in their real-life situations closer to the time that they’re experiencing difficulty. The goal of DBT is to help clients move closer to their life worth living goals by reducing the extremes and obstacles in living and increasing skillful and effective behaviors that enhance their lives.

Our Adolescent Program

For individuals 13+, however, multifamily group participation serves individuals 15+ and younger adolescents will likely be served by individual providers rather than in multifamily group settings. Clients will participate in a once weekly 2 hour skills training group. Both the adolescent and a caregiver must be prepared to participate in all groups. Adolescents also meet with a DBT provider individually weekly for an hour, with intermittent family sessions provided as needed. Caregivers may have a coach who they meet with as well and may also be assigned their own individual therapist if needed. Adolescents and their caregivers also have access to skills coaching by phone between sessions and their providers participate in weekly consultation with other DBT providers in this program.

Our DBT for Children Program

This program requires a greater commitment from caregivers than from the child themselves and the foundational assumption of DBT-C (DBT for children) is that the behavior of the child is irrelevant until the environment is prepared to help them change. Caregivers learn a number of foundational skills about validation, acceptance, and learning/behavior change to create a validating and supportive environment for their child to grow as well as helping them to stay regulated in the presence of difficult behavioral concerns. Most caregivers participate in the once weekly “parent training” group that meets for one hour per week in addition to working individually with a DBT-C therapist. After foundational skills are learned, the child will likely be incorporated into their own weekly sessions while the caregiver sessions continue.

Our Referral Process

Once a referral is submitted, it is automatically sent to someone internally to gather additional information and schedule for a one-hour screening with one of our DBT clinicians. The purpose of the screening is to share some basic information about the program and gather some basic information from clients to determine if they meet the basic requirements of the program and also maintain an interest in it. Once the screening is completed, the information gathered in the screening is shared with the entire DBT team to assign a clinician to proceed with the process. This meeting happens the first Thursday of every month. At that meeting, a client is either assigned to a clinician (if one is available) to proceed with scheduling or, if no clinician is immediately available, the client is placed on the waitlist.  Clients are removed from the waiting list and assigned to a clinician in the order that they are received. Once the client is assigned to a DBT provider, they complete a DBT-specific intake and another 3-5 sessions of “pre-treatment.” The purpose of pre-treatment is to provide clients information about DBT, our program and expectations as well as to help clients determine if they believe the program will be a good fit for them and if they’re ready and willing to make the needed commitments. If clients are already established with a non-DBT provider, they should remain active with their current therapist throughout this process until the end of pre-treatment when they are fully committed to and enrolled in the program.

  • If you are having problems with this form, please contact our Whitewater office at 262-473-0670.

Related Articles and Interviews about DBT:

Listen to the interview with, WI Public Radio, about DBT with our Psychologist, Dr. Lesley Chapin. 

Interview with Channel 7 WSAW-TV, about DBT with our Psychologist, Dr. Lesley Chapin.

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