Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive, evidence-based treatment designed to treat individuals who struggle to control their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. These individuals may demonstrate suicidal behavior or non-suicidal self-harming behaviors (such as cutting or burning) in addition to other impulsive and otherwise problematic behaviors. DBT is the gold-standard treatment for individuals struggling with borderline personality disorder or other pervasive patterns of emotion dysregulation. Comprehensive DBT treatment includes individual therapy to work on individual target behaviors, group skills training to learn and practice new coping skills, and phone coaching in order to generalize skills in moments of crisis.

Individuals in DBT will learn ways to understand and regulate their emotions and behaviors and will learn skills to address mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

At this time, Encouraged Psychology does not offer comprehensive DBT. However, Dr. Amanda Eix can provide structured individual DBT sessions and can help connect clients to existing DBT groups. She can also offer DBT-informed care to appropriate clients.

Radically-open dialectical behavior therapy (RO-DBT) is a comprehensive, evidence-based treatment designed to treat individuals who struggle with over-control; that is, they demonstrate too much self-control. These individuals often struggle to identify and express emotions, are rigid in their thinking and behavior, focus on details and tend toward perfectionism, and have difficulty connecting with others. It is the gold-standard treatment for disorders of over-control, including obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), anorexia, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and OCD. Comprehensive RO-DBT treatment includes individual therapy to work on individual target behaviors and group skills training to learn and practice new coping skills.

Individuals in RO-DBT will learn effective social-signaling, openness and flexible responding in order to help them identify and express their emotions and connect with others.

At this time, Encouraged Psychology does not offer comprehensive RO-DBT. However, Dr. Amanda Eix can provide structured individual RO-DBT sessions and can help connect clients to existing RO-DBT groups.

The Unified Protocol (UP) is a transdiagnostic evidence-based treatment designed to treat emotional disorders. It is tailored to individuals that experience strong emotions, have negative reactions to their own emotions, and actively work to suppress or avoid their emotions as a result. It is a gold-standard treatment for a variety of mood and anxiety disorders as well as the painful experiences of other emotions (such as anger, shame, or guilt).

Individuals in the UP will learn to identify and understand their emotions, become more mindful of their emotional experiences, think in more flexible and adaptive ways, and act in alternative ways to their emotional urges. At the end of their treatment, they will engage in emotional exposures to learn that they can effectively experience emotions and live their lives.

Exposure with response prevention (ERP) is an evidence-based treatment designed to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder and other disorders characterized by avoidance. In ERP, clients will learn to identify the triggers of their anxiety (and resulting obsessive thoughts and/or compulsions) and actively approach those triggers. They will engage in exposures, in which they choose to engage in situations that intentionally produce fear or anxiety, and then work to resist engaging in their preferred responses (including compulsions or other safety behaviors) to reduce anxiety. In doing so, clients learn that they can successfully face the things that make them fearful and gain mastery over their fears.

Both Prolonged Exposure (PE) and Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) are gold-standard treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related diagnoses.

In PE, clients will work to reduce avoidance of the memories and situations that evoke trauma responses. With their therapist, they will create a narrative of their traumatic experience and re-tell the narrative in repeated sessions. In doing so, they will re-experience the memory and work to process it in healthier, more adaptive ways. At home, they will work to face the situations they avoid in order to learn that they can successfully face their fears.

In CPT, clients will identify the negative thoughts they have about themselves, others, and the world. With their therapist, they will work to create new, more adaptive ways of thinking that allow the client to move forward with their life.

Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) refers to a broad spectrum of treatment designed to change the way individuals think and act in order to change the way they feel. In CBT, clients can learn strategies to reduce their physical symptoms, think in more flexible and adaptive ways, and change their behaviors to better align with their values.