DBT-A PROGRAM

IMPACT'S INTEGRATIVE DBT PROGRAM FOR ADOLESCENTS

Empowering Teens with Skills for Emotional Regulation, Connection, & Self-Understanding

GET STARTED TODAY

✔ Tailored Treatment

✔ Safe & Supportive Environment

✔ Inclusive Care

✔ Expert Clinicians

✔ Specialized Testing

What is IMPACT's DBT-A Program?

Navigating the challenges of adolescence can be overwhelming for both teens and their families.

The Integrative Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A) program at IMPACT is a specialized and comprehensive approach designed to empower teenagers with the skills they need to thrive emotionally, socially, and academically.

Our program is especially well-suited for neurodivergent teens—including autistic adolescents, teens with ADHD, and those with sensory or processing differences—who benefit from emotion regulation support that honors how their nervous system works, rather than asking them to mask or conform.

Why Choose DBT-A at IMPACT?

At the heart of our program is a commitment to understanding and supporting the unique needs of teenagers.

Our program integrates DBT-A with other therapeutic modalities, including attachment-based frameworks, cognitive behavior therapy, family systems, and psychodynamic models.

For neurodivergent teens, we adapt DBT skills thoughtfully, accounting for sensory differences, processing styles, and the impact of masking. Our approach reduces shame and compliance-based expectations, emphasizes co-regulation alongside independence, and integrates identity-affirming language throughout. The goal is not to “normalize” your teen. The goal is to help them feel safer inside their own nervous system.

DBT for Adolescents is an evidence-based therapy that combines cognitive-behavioral techniques with mindfulness strategies. It's specifically tailored to address the emotional intensity, identity development challenges, and social pressures adolescents face.

DBT-A is an effective treatment for a wide range of diagnostic presentations, including depression, self-harm and suicidal behaviors, trauma, emerging borderline personality disorder traits, family conflict, and high-risk behaviors.

IMPACT's Approach to DBT-A

IMPACT’s Integrative DBT-A program is for teenagers aged 13-18 (enrolled in middle or high school). The program utilizes five modules of DBT-A: Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Distress Tolerance, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Walking the Middle Path. In our weekly group, parents learn the key techniques of each module.

The other components of the program include weekly individual therapy for teens and a dedicated team of clinicians who work together to support you and your family.

Tailored Curriculum: Our program is designed to resonate with teens, offering a curriculum that is both engaging and relevant to their experiences. Each module is crafted to equip teens with practical skills they can apply in their daily lives, providing DBT in a more flexible and integrative way than traditional DBT-A programs.

Our Therapists: Our team of licensed therapists and postdoctoral fellows specialize in working with adolescents, providing a safe and non-judgmental space for them to explore their emotions, build resilience, and develop coping mechanisms.

Parental Involvement: We believe a strong support system is crucial for success. Our program encourages active involvement from parents and caregivers, fostering open communication and collaboration between families and therapists.

What the Program Entails

Our Integrative DBT-A Program is designed to help teens who need support in at least three of the following five areas: confusion about self/identity, impulsivity, lack of emotional control, interpersonal problems, and adolescent-family dilemmas. The length of our program is typically six months.

Individual Therapy

Weekly individual therapy focuses on identifying and targeting the main problem areas in a teen’s life and applying relevant DBT-A skills to their daily lives. Individual sessions also integrate a range of interventions, blended seamlessly with DBT-A. There is an option for multiple individual sessions per week.

We meet teens where they are, whether they are skeptical, burned out on previous therapy, highly verbal, concrete thinkers, or deeply internal processors. Skills are taught in clear, structured ways that match neurodivergent learning styles.

DBT-A Parent Group (Required)

Learn concrete strategies to identify, understand and better manage your own reactions as well as your teen's emotional ups and downs. Parent work is an essential part of our program and we will help you to effect change in your relationship with your teen. Our comprehensive curriculum covers parenting material over a period of 24 weeks and includes skills to help parents: a) reduce their own emotional suffering and emotional distress (sadness, fear, shame & guilt, anger); b) use mindfulness to decrease reactivity; c) reconnect with their teenager through non-judgmental understanding and validation; d) find ways both to observe limits and to collaborate in problem solving; and e) self-validate and accept difficulties that can’t yet be resolved.

DBT Process Group (upon program completion)

Teens who have completed the full six-month program can join our ongoing DBT Process Group, facilitated by expert therapists trained in DBT-A and intensive group psychotherapy.

Group Modules

Core Mindfulness Skills

Increases awareness of emotions, thoughts, and action urges while enhancing attentional control and reducing reactivity. For neurodivergent teens, mindfulness is adapted to support observing sensory input without overload, noticing internal states without judgment, and building awareness of escalation cues.

Walking the Middle Path

Addresses common teen and parent relationship conflicts through dialectical thinking and validation.

Emotion Regulation

Reduces emotional vulnerability and reactivity, aiding quicker recovery from extreme mood states.

Distress Tolerance

Decreases impulsive behaviors by increasing the capacity for tolerating high levels of distress.

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Builds and maintains positive relationships through direct teaching of relationship skills.

Fees & General Information

Consultation Team

Our clinicians meet regularly as a consultation team to support one another and think creatively about the best ways to help teens and their families.

Entry Dates for New Participants

New participants are welcome at the beginning of each new module. Inquire for more information.

Cost

We believe in being as transparent as possible about pricing.

Individual therapy: $200-$350 per session

Parent Group: $100 per group for 24 weeks ($4200)

DBT for Neurodivergent Teens

Emotion Regulation Support for Autistic & Neurodiverse Adolescents

For neurodivergent teens, including autistic teens, teens with ADHD, sensory differences, or complex learning profiles, adolescence can feel especially overwhelming. Big emotions, social confusion, shutdowns, anxiety, and exhaustion from masking are common experiences that traditional therapy doesn’t always address.

At IMPACT, we modify DBT thoughtfully so that it:

Honors sensory differences and processing styles
Reduces shame and compliance-based expectations
Integrates identity-affirming, neurodiversity-informed language
Emphasizes co-regulation alongside building independence

Our DBT skills groups for neurodivergent teens are regulation-focused, strengths-based, and identity-affirming, not social skills training. Teens practice skills in real time, build peer connections in a supportive environment, and develop emotional language in developmentally appropriate ways.

DBT may be a good fit for your teen if they experience frequent emotional outbursts or shutdowns, struggle with anxiety or panic, have difficulty maintaining friendships, experience intense reactions to perceived rejection, or feel chronically overwhelmed.