At its purest form, “DBT is a treatment by a community of therapists for a community of clients.” It is mandatory that all DBT therapists take part in weekly consultation with a team of other DBT therapists. This consultation meeting serves two purposes: to enhance the therapist’s skill in DBT as well as to enhance their motivation to continue to treat high risk clients. It is common for therapists who treat people who are high risk and suicidal to become burned out and drift out of the frame of doing highly effective DBT.

The team at the DBT Institute of Michigan monitors each team member’s burn out each consultation meeting and we also make sure that the consultation that is given on difficult to treat cases falls withinin the model of DBT. The DBT Institute believes in applying the same DBT principles and expectations on each other as we do on our clients. In essence, DBT therapists are also clients in DBT as well. The team is lead and monitored by DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician,TM, Josh Smith, LMSW.