Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based treatment that was originally developed for women with borderline personality disorder who engaged in non suicidal self-injury. Since its development, it has been shown to be effective for clients with multi-diagnostic profiles and otherwise difficult to treat clients/patients.

DBT is a mindfulness form of cognitive behavioral therapy. There are three pillars to DBT: Behaviorism, Zen philosophy, and Dialectics. Standard DBT has four treatment modes including individual psychotherapy, Skills group training, phone coaching, and consultation team. In 2015, the treatment developer, Dr. Marsha Linehan and her team published a high profile treatment component analysis study in which they examined DBT standard vs DBT Skills vs DBT Individual. It is important to note that all treatment arms contained DBT consultation team and similar crisis management protocols. The results demonstrated that DBT Skills performed similarly well on a number of important outcome measures to the standard DBT package (again, all four treatment components).