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 Adult Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) Team has been operating since 2018 to help provide care to individuals who struggle with emotional regulation. This program has been independently evaluated by DBT-Linehan Board of Certification and has met their gold standard of care and certification.
LCCMHC’s Adult 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. LCCMHC’s Adult DBT program seeks to equip clients by providing skills group classes, weekly one hour therapy sessions with an individual DBT trained clinician, offers daily 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. In order to qualify for services, they must live in Lexington County, meet the need for high level of care, and struggle with significant emotional regulation issues. Most clients who fit the criteria of this program struggle with impulsivity issues, emotional dysregulation, interpersonal problems, hospitalizations for suicidal ideations, those who struggle with self-injury, disordered eating, and substance misuse. 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 appropriateness for full comprehensive treatment. The treatment length spans approximately 1 year. This requires a weekly skills group for 12 months consisting 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. In addition to weekly skills group, they will see an intensively trained DBT therapist weekly to utilize skills in their daily life. Clients who use all aspects of the treatment as designed show improvement in behavioral control, a reduction of PTSD symptoms, show significant reductions of primary diagnosis symptoms, and increase self-respect.
For more information on how to start services, please visit our referrals page.
For more information about LCCMHC's Adult DBT, please call 803-399-9368 or email billie.stroud@omh.bhdd.sc.gov.
LCCMHC's Adult DBT Program has been independently evaluated by the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification and has demonstrated fidelity to the model and therefore is recognized as a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Program. Additional programs outside to LCCMHC's Adult DBT Program are not recognized as a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Program and while they hold the same standard as LCCMHC's Adult DBT Program they have not undergone the extensive review to confirm or deny fidelity to the model.
