Nancy is attending an Intensive Training to add PTSD treatment to DBT

I am very excited to be going to Boston tomorrow for a week long training in how to add Prolonged Exposure Therapy, one of the most researched treatments for PTSD, into DBT.  When DBT was initially developed, Dr. Linehan identified 4 stages of treatment….Stage 1 is focused on learning skills while targeting “life threatening, therapy interfering and crisis behaviors”.  Once those behaviors are under control by learning and using skills, Stage 2 is all about doing the trauma work and learning how to experience emotions, which are issues that are so commonly connected to the problems of people receiving DBT treatment.  (Click here to learn about the other stages of treatment) The recommended treatment for that was Prolonged Exposure Therapy, developed by Dr. Edna Foa.  Now, Dr. Melanie Harned has developed a way to provide the Prolonged Exposure Treatment into Stage 1 of DBT and she is presenting her second Intensive Training on this along with her colleague, Elizabeth Dexter-Mazza, PsyD.  Her research has shown that doing treatment in this manner, using DBT + DBT PE, appears to be more efficacious than DBT alone in improving PTSD, suicidal and self-injurious behavior, and other trauma-related outcomes among severe BPD patients.  And you know I’m all about whatever is more effective for helping our clients!