Common questions

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a skills-based, evidence-supported treatment developed by Marsha Linehan for people who experience emotions intensely. It is the best-established treatment for borderline personality disorder, and research suggests its skills can also help with depression, anxiety, anger, and relationship conflict. The skills fall into four modules: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

No. DBT skills are useful for anyone whose emotions feel bigger or harder to manage than they'd like. You don't need a diagnosis, and we don't diagnose anyone.

No. DBT skills classes are psychoeducational — a structured class where you learn and practice skills. They are not individual psychotherapy and not a comprehensive DBT program. Many participants take a skills class alongside their own therapy.

Yes. DBT's central dialectic — acceptance and change held together — mirrors the shape of the Catholic spiritual life: you are loved as you are, and called to grow. The Church teaches that emotions are not sinful in themselves (CCC §1767), which lets emotion-regulation work proceed without guilt. Our classes teach DBT within a Catholic understanding of the human person and never ask you to set your faith aside.

DBT's mindfulness skills drew on both Zen practice and Christian contemplative prayer, and it's reasonable for Catholics to ask about that — the Church itself encouraged discernment about Eastern methods in its 1989 letter on Christian meditation. We teach mindfulness as a set of attentional skills, and connect them to the Church's own contemplative tradition: recollection, the Examen, and the practice of the presence of God. Where prayer enters, it is Christian prayer.

No. A skills class teaches psychological skills. It complements the sacraments and spiritual direction; it does not replace them.

No. Classes are taught from a Catholic perspective, so faith will come up naturally, but anyone who's comfortable with that framing is welcome.

Classes are led by Jenell Effinger, Ph.D., an intensively trained DBT psychologist and Clinical Director of Front Range Treatment Center. See the About page for more.

Dates and pricing for the next online cohort haven't been set yet. Join the waitlist and we'll email you as soon as they are — no commitment, no spam.

If you are in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or go to your nearest emergency room. A skills class is not urgent care.