Enhanced Skills Training

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Telehealth Delivered. Since the start of COVID, we have successfully converted all our treatment services, including our IOPs, to telehealth. All standard services and IOPs are currently offered via HIPAA-secure video conferencing.

The Enhanced Skills Training Program (EST) teaches DBT skills using a group format. This group meets twice a week, for 60 minutes each time. Participants of the EST program have access to the same excellent materials used throughout PDBTI and the same highly trained clinicians who provide clinical services across the clinic. The groups are educational format, and are more similar to a class than a therapy group. The goal of the group is to learn and apply skills related to emotion regulation, mindfulness, tolerating distress and interpersonal effectiveness. Our group leaders are highly trained and are part of a comprehensive DBT program, teaching the most current version of Marsha Linehan’s DBT skills treatment.  You will meet with the group leader for thirty minutes every-other-week to review progress and troubleshoot skills training.

Medication management is available to those in our EST program through psychiatric nurse practitioners who are on-site, experts in prescribing, and part of the comprehensive PDBTI team.

Clients entering the EST program are asked to have an outside provider who will sign off on a crisis management plan and a provider agreement. We recommend that the outside provider be a therapist; however, you can discuss with your PDBTI intake therapist the option of having a psychiatrist, counselor, primary care physician, medication manager, etc. be your outside provider while you in the EST program. If you do not currently have an outside provider, PDBTI can provide a list of outside mental health providers for you to contact.

Clients entering the EST program remain on our waitlist for our standard DBT program. Once you reach the top of the waitlist for the standard DBT program, you will meet with your EST group leader to assess if you would benefit from the standard DBT program, or if you have met your treatment goals while participating in the EST program.

GETTING STARTED

If you are interested in Enhanced Skills Training for yourself, your loved one, or your client, fill out and submit our electronic interest form and please be sure to mark the box indicating that you are interested in our EST program.

For registration, insurance, and billing questions, please contact our Intake Team at referral@pdbti.org or (503) 290-3291.