DBT & DBT Group

DBT is not an open-ended conversation about your week — it's a structured approach built around specific, learnable skills. Sessions follow a consistent framework, and much of the work centers on practicing concrete tools you can use in the moment, not just talking about difficulties after the fact.

It was originally developed for people who felt everything intensely and struggled to manage emotions that seemed to arrive all at once, often faster than any coping strategy could keep pace with. Since then, research has extended its usefulness well beyond that starting point — DBT is now used to support people navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, and emotional swings that feel hard to predict or control, regardless of how those difficulties first showed up.

What sets DBT apart from many other approaches is its emphasis on practice. Skills are introduced, demonstrated, and then tried out in real situations between sessions, so the work extends well past the time spent in the room and into daily life where it's needed most.

The word "dialectical" refers to holding two things that seem contradictory at once — and DBT is built on one particular pairing: you are doing the best you can with what you have right now, and you can still learn to do things differently going forward.

That balance of acceptance and change runs through every part of the work. You are not asked to believe something is wrong with you before you can grow, and you are not asked to stay exactly as you are because change feels unreachable. Both truths hold space at the same time.

DBT organizes its tools into four skill areas. Each one addresses a different piece of how emotions show up and how they're handled — together, they form a fuller toolkit than any single skill could offer on its own.

Rising Minds offers both individual DBT and DBT skills group, and the two are designed to work together. Group sessions are where the four skill areas are taught and practiced directly, often alongside other people learning the same tools.

Individual sessions are where those skills get applied to your specific circumstances — the situations, relationships, and patterns that are actually part of your life. Group builds the toolkit; individual therapy helps you use it where it matters. The combination tends to be more effective than either piece on its own, though either can be a reasonable starting point depending on your needs.

A note on cost: the DBT skills group is self-pay and purchased as a block of sessions up front — it is not billed to insurance. Individual therapy is billed separately and may be covered by your plan. Group dates and current block pricing are shared during your free consultation.

You don't need a specific diagnosis to benefit from DBT. Many people come to it because they've been told, or have long suspected, that they feel things more intensely than those around them — and that intensity has made certain parts of life harder to navigate.

Both individual and group DBT are available in person at our Bountiful office and via telehealth across Utah and Idaho, so distance or scheduling doesn't have to keep you from either format.

Group sessions tend to follow a structured curriculum moving through the four skill areas, while individual sessions are shaped around what's happening in your life week to week. Neither format asks you to have everything figured out before you begin — the structure is there to help you find footing, not to test you against it.

Telehealth sessions are conducted the same way as in-person ones, with the same attention and the same skills practice — the difference is simply where you're sitting when it happens. That flexibility matters for people balancing work, school, or family schedules across Utah and Idaho.

If you're not sure whether individual DBT, skills group, or both make sense for you, that's a reasonable place to start the conversation rather than something you need to resolve on your own beforehand.

Rising Minds offers a free 15-minute consultation to talk through what you're experiencing and what DBT could look like for you — in person in Bountiful or via telehealth anywhere in Utah or Idaho. It's a low-pressure way to ask questions and see whether this approach feels like the right fit.