Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) in Atlanta, GA

Avalon Psychotherapy offers DBT therapy to individuals in the Atlanta area. DBT is a form of behavioral therapy that helps individuals cope with their emotions and respond differently or better to difficult situations.

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

– Viktor E. Frankl

You’re overwhelmed.

It feels like you’re held hostage on an emotional roller coaster. One moment, you’re up and feeling great. Then, you’re plummeting towards a crisis and feel terrible. When you’re in crisis mode, it is very hard for you to control your emotions. Sometimes, life feels hopeless.

When you’re down, everything in your life seems to suffer. You can’t focus on your work, grades, relationships, or self-care. Other people in your life have even started to take note. Now, you’re noticing more conflict in your important relationships as well. You may have already started pulling away from others and isolating yourself. You try to protect yourself from getting hurt, but this has made you feel so lonely.

Some days it feels like the whole world is working against you. No matter how hard you try, you worry you’ll never get ahead. That feeling makes you resentful and angry.

You’ve tried everything you can think of to feel better, but nothing has worked. Even other types of therapy have failed. Now, you feel helpless, like you may be stuck feeling this way forever.

What is DBT Therapy?

If you're struggling to create positive change, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) can help. DBT is a unique form of psychotherapy compared to other forms of therapy. It addresses the root cause of the issues you’re experiencing.

DBT therapy also offers a specific set of skills to help you transform your life. DBT therapy can help you better handle distress, improve relationships, and regulate emotions.

When We Recommend DBT

We use DBT principles in many of our counseling sessions. But, we suggest DBT to teens and adults who are experiencing the following situations:

Severe depression

Self-injurious behavior or suicidal thinking

Severe anxiety

Engage in dangerous or risky behaviors

Use of illicit substances or abuse alcohol

Trouble regulating emotions or have “emotional breakdowns”

Strong reaction to rejection

Disordered eating or a diagnosed eating disorder

Poor impulse control

Academic challenges or trouble maintaining employment

Avalon Psychotherapy’s Approach to DBT

We know that life can be very hard at times and things can feel downright overwhelming. Furthermore, you deserve to get high-quality mental health services. That’s why we offer DBT to individuals located in the Atlanta area and anywhere in the state of Georgia. We have seen the transformative results from DBT and believe that it can help you!

Our main goal is to develop a strong relationship with you. We aim to help you feel comfortable during our counseling sessions. We won't sugarcoat it, DBT requires you to get uncomfortable. Working towards achieving the results you desire is difficult work. But, we will be cheering you on every step of the way and helping you navigate any challenges.

We will take time to get to know you and listen to what’s going on in your life. This includes learning what has or has not worked well for you in the past. Then, we will determine what’s getting in the way of you reaching your goals. This may also include what is keeping you from a happy life, and having healthy relationships. Once we find the cause of your emotional pain, we work to get between the stressors in your life and the behaviors causing the most distress.

We teach you a specific set of DBT skills with our therapy at Avalon, including:

Mindfulness

Mindfulness helps you be aware of where you are at and how you are feeling in the present moment
Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills

These skills help you learn to be both assertive and advocate for your needs. They can help you build and sustain healthy relationships with the people in your life.
Distress Tolerance Skills

: These skills help you navigate the tough emotions that will occur in your life. But, without letting them creating havoc on your mental health.
Emotional Regulation Techniques

You will learn skills to help you regulate your emotions and lead a more stable life.

A DBT Therapist can Provide the Support you Deserve!

After working with a DBT therapist, our clients find they can better handle emotions.

They feel like they can thrive when they feel stressed or overwhelmed. Clients who complete DBT therapy report feeling seen, engaged, aware, and insightful. They are moving toward greater changes and improvements in their life.

They can cope with difficult emotions in more productive, effective, and intentional ways. Furthermore, they feel like they have more in control of their actions and urges. They're also more clear about what they want and how to take steps in that direction. Thus, they are more confident to do hard, uncomfortable things that are helpful for them.

Person walking in a field of wildflowers

Individual DBT Skills Coaching

You might be struggling with mild to intense anxiety from a current situation in your life (work, relationship, school, family, etc) and need support with how to cope. In Individual DBT, you might learn about the PLEASE skill which helps take care of your mind by taking care of your body as a proactive skill for the day-to-day anxiety. Then you might learn about helpful ways to self-soothe to cope with intense anxiety that occurs during difficult moments/situations as a reactive skill. There are worksheets for both along with worksheets to notice your emotions throughout the day and how they affect your thoughts, urges, and behaviors.

You can schedule a consultation call to see if coaching might be a good fit. Erin can also consult with your individual therapist, if you have one, to help determine if coaching would be right for you, or if Adherent DBT is more appropriate. Consultation throughout your Individual DBT Sessions with your individual therapist will also occur to make sure your team can best support you.

Reach Out to Book

Individual DBT Skills Coaching is one-on-one work with Erin Simone to learn a number of DBT skills to help you work through situations you are going through in your life. DBT Skills Coaching is not meant to replace regular therapy, but is rather a more laser-targeted approach to addressing specific scenarios that you bring to the session.
In a DBT Skills Coaching session, we will discuss what you need support for, and Erin will teach you 2-5 DBT skills or concepts that will help you navigate what you’re experiencing. The same DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets spiral from Marsha Linehan is used. You’ll leave feeling like you have more tools in your toolbelt to address the specific situation that brought you to coaching, and to apply to other situations in your life.
The number of coaching sessions needed varies for everyone, but coaching is set up to be “as needed.” You may only need a few sessions, or it may feel helpful to be ongoing. Unlike regular DBT Group Therapy, there is no specific commitment.
DBT Group Therapy, alongside seeing a therapist regularly, is a very effective way to learn DBT skills and to be able to practice them regularly, but it does have some limitations that individual coaching can supplement. Namely, DBT Group Therapy is very structured. Skills are learned in a set order on a set curriculum. If you have a situation in your life that you need support for immediately, individual coaching can help you pinpoint the exact skills needed to support you through it. Coaching can also serve as a refresher, if you’ve already gone through formal DBT therapy and just need to sharpen some skills you’ve learned.

Begin DBT in Atlanta, GA

You deserve to live with confidence and peace of mind. Our caring therapists would be honored to support you in overcoming challenges and managing your emotions.

We offer this support from our Atlanta, GA-based therapy practice.

To start your therapy journey, please follow these simple steps: