Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Healing Begins When Your Emotions No Longer Have to Carry the Weight of Survival.

A cozy living room with two beige armchairs, a wooden coffee table, and a bookshelf filled with decorative vases, books, and plants. Large windows with light curtains allow natural light to brighten the space, which is decorated with various green potted plants, a lamp, and framed artwork on the wall.

Do your emotions sometimes feel overwhelming, unpredictable, or difficult to control?

Perhaps you find yourself shutting down, becoming emotionally overwhelmed, avoiding conflict, or reacting in ways you later wish you hadn't.

These responses aren't signs that you're "too emotional."

They are often survival adaptations developed by a nervous system that learned to stay on high alert in response to painful or overwhelming experiences.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) helps you better understand your emotions, develop healthier coping skills, strengthen relationships, and respond to life's challenges with greater confidence and balance.

Healing isn't about suppressing emotions.

It's about learning to understand them, regulate them, and respond with intention rather than survival.

Helping You Understand the Story Behind Your Survival.

I believe people make sense once we understand the story behind their survival.

Many of the emotional patterns that bring people to therapy didn't develop because they were weak or "too sensitive." They developed because emotions once served an important purpose—helping you recognize danger, protect yourself, adapt to difficult environments, or meet others’ expectations.

When those survival patterns continue long after the danger has passed, they can begin to interfere with relationships, self-worth, and emotional well-being.

Healing begins when we approach those patterns with curiosity instead of judgment.

What Is Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)?

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based therapy that helps people develop practical skills for managing emotions, improving relationships, tolerating distress, and living more intentionally.

The word dialectical refers to balancing two seemingly opposite truths at the same time. For example:

  • You can accept yourself as you are and continue growing.

  • Your emotions are valid, and you can learn healthier ways to respond to them.

  • Your survival patterns make sense, and you don't have to remain stuck in them.

DBT teaches skills that help you respond thoughtfully rather than react automatically to old survival patterns.

My Approach

One of the reasons I value DBT is that it teaches practical skills while honoring the experiences that shaped you.

Rather than asking you to ignore or suppress your emotions, we'll explore what those emotions may have been trying to communicate and how they developed within your unique life story.

Depending on your needs, I may integrate DBT with

  • EMDR

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS)

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  • Attachment-Based Therapy, Existential Therapy

  • and Trauma-Focused CBT (TF-CBT)

to create a treatment plan tailored specifically to you.

DBT Can Help With

  • Emotional dysregulation

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Complex PTSD

  • Unresolved Childhood Trauma

  • People-Pleasing

  • Perfectionism

  • Relationship difficulties

  • Boundary setting

  • Anger

  • Emotional overwhelm

  • Shame

  • Stress

  • Life transitions

Ready to Begin?

You don't have to fight your emotions or fear them.

Together, we'll explore the story behind your emotional responses, strengthen your ability to navigate life's challenges, and help you reconnect with the authentic self beneath the survival patterns.

Healing doesn't mean becoming someone else.

It means becoming more fully yourself.

Schedule Your Online Therapy Appointment

Frequently Asked Questions

  • No.

    While DBT was originally developed to treat Borderline Personality Disorder, research has shown it is highly effective for many people experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, emotional overwhelm, relationship difficulties, and chronic stress.

    DBT teaches life skills that can benefit anyone who wants to respond to emotions with greater confidence and balance.

  • Yes.

    Many people come to therapy because their emotions feel unpredictable or overwhelming. DBT helps you recognize emotional patterns, understand what triggers them, and develop healthier ways of responding instead of reacting automatically.

    The goal isn't to stop feeling emotions—it's to help you navigate them without becoming controlled by them.

  • That's one of the most important questions we can ask.

    Many people believe their emotions are the problem.

    I don't.

    Often, emotions become overwhelming because your nervous system learned that staying highly alert was necessary for survival. Anxiety may have helped you anticipate danger. Anger may have protected you from being hurt. Emotional numbing may have reduced overwhelming pain. People-pleasing may have helped preserve important relationships.

    Your emotions weren't trying to sabotage you.

    They were trying to protect you.

    Healing isn't about getting rid of your emotions.

    It's about helping your nervous system recognize that it no longer has to carry the full weight of survival alone.

    When your nervous system begins to feel safe, your emotions no longer have to work so hard to protect you.