Dialectical Behavior Therapy is an evidenced-based practice developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan in the 1980s and was the first effective treatment for adults with significant difficulty regulating their emotions. Lexington County Community Mental Health Center Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Team has been operating since 2018 to help provide care to individuals who struggle with emotional regulation and support to involved family members.
LCCMHC’s comprehensive DBT program is designed to provide stabilization for emotional dysregulation with skills teaching, integration, and application. The outpatient program allows clients the opportunity to stay in their home with their traditional schedule and to acquire and apply new skills in real time. Lexington County Community Mental Health Center’s DBT program equips clients by providing skills group classes, weekly therapy sessions with an individual DBT trained clinician, after hours DBT skills coaching, the benefit of the DBT consultation team, and medication management.
When a person enrolls in services and is assessed at intake, they can be referred to the DBT program. Those appropriate for DBT services are clients who have confusion about self, impulsivity issues, emotional dysregulation, interpersonal problems, hospitalizations for suicidal ideations, those who struggle with self-injury, disordered eating, and substance abuse. The purpose of this program is to help people create a life worth living.
The referral goes to the DBT consult team for review and they are staffed for appropriateness for skills group only or full comprehensive treatment. The treatment length spans approximately 1 year (offering a weekly skills group for 6 months, available to take in two rounds). The modules consist of mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. The purpose of skills acquisition is to learn how to regulate emotions and behaviors, reduce problem behaviors and replace these with skillful behaviors, and deepen supports. If it is deemed appropriate that the client have comprehensive treatment, the client will also be afforded the opportunity to participate in weekly therapy sessions with a DBT trained clinician to help them utilize skills in their daily life and work through 4 stages of treatment to achieve behavioral control, eliminate symptoms of PTSD or primary diagnosis symptoms, and increase self-respect.
For more information on how to start services, please visit our referrals page.
For more information about DBT, please call 803-399-9368 or email billie.stroud@scdmh.org.
