DBT Therapy in Salt Lake City, UT
Full-model DBT: individual sessions, a skills group, phone coaching between sessions, and a therapist who is on a consultation team. Skip any one of those and it stops being DBT.
Four Parts, and It Only Works as a Set
A great many practices advertise DBT and deliver one quarter of it. Here is the whole model, so you can ask anybody else the same questions.
Individual therapy, once a week
Your own DBT therapist, working from a diary card you fill in daily. The session agenda is set by what the card shows rather than by what feels most pressing on the day — which is precisely the point, because the most pressing thing is not always the most important one.
A skills group, also once a week
Two hours, taught rather than processed. Four modules — mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness — over roughly twenty-four weeks for one full pass. It is a class, not a support group, and most people run it twice.
Phone coaching between sessions
The part that most "DBT-informed" practices quietly drop. Skills are useless if you can only access them in a Tuesday appointment, so you can call your therapist in the actual moment — briefly, for coaching, within agreed limits.
A consultation team for the therapists
Every therapist here sits on a weekly team. It is not supervision or admin; it exists because this work burns clinicians out, and a burnt-out DBT therapist stops doing DBT properly. You will never see it, and it is one of the four pillars.
Less Insight, More Instructions
Plenty of people arrive here able to describe their problem in forensic detail — years of good talk therapy behind them — and still doing exactly the same thing every single time. Understanding why you do it turns out not to be the same as being able to stop.
DBT is unusual in that it is explicitly a skills-training model. You are taught specific, nameable techniques and then asked to practise them in the week, and the session reviews how that went. The diary card makes the pattern visible in your own handwriting, which is far more persuasive than any observation a therapist could offer.
It was developed for people whose emotions arrive faster and harder and take longer to come down — originally for chronic suicidality and borderline personality disorder, where it has the strongest evidence base of anything available. It now works well beyond that: self-harm, eating disorders, substance use, and people who simply describe themselves as having no volume control.
It is also demanding. Weekly individual plus a two-hour group plus daily practice is a real commitment, and we would rather say that plainly than have you discover it in week three.
- ✓A taught, structured curriculum — not open-ended exploration
- ✓Daily diary card, so the pattern becomes visible rather than argued
- ✓Strongest evidence base of any treatment for chronic self-harm
- ✓Genuinely demanding — weekly individual, a 2-hour group, daily practice
Programs
Six ways in. The first two are the full model; the others exist because not everybody needs or can commit to all of it.
Not sure which of these fits? The assessment exists to answer exactly that, and it is a genuine assessment rather than a sales call — we regularly recommend something other than our own full programme.
Assessment First, Because DBT Is a Commitment
Four steps. The second one exists so nobody starts a six-month programme by accident.
A free 20-minute call
With a DBT therapist. We will ask what has and has not worked before, and describe honestly what the full programme demands week to week.
A proper assessment
Ninety minutes, charged at the standard rate. We map the targets, look at what is actually driving the behaviour, and decide together whether full DBT, the group alone, or something else entirely is right.
Orientation and a commitment
DBT formally begins with agreeing to the structure — attendance, the diary card, the coaching limits. It is deliberate, mutual, and one of the reasons the model works.
Six months, then a review
Standard commitment is six months, which is one full pass through the curriculum. Many people do a second pass; plenty finish. We review properly at the six-month mark rather than drifting on.
It Is a Class, Not a Support Group
This surprises people, so it is worth being clear: the skills group is taught. There is a whiteboard, there are handouts, there is homework, and there are two facilitators working through a curriculum. You will not be asked to share your history with the room.
That structure is deliberate. A group where eight people in acute distress process their week together tends to help nobody. A group where eight people learn a named technique, practise it, and report back on how it went is a genuinely different mechanism — and it is the one with the evidence.
Groups are capped at eight and run for two hours weekly. The four modules take roughly twenty-four weeks for a full pass, and new groups open every six weeks, so a module boundary is never more than a month and a half away.
You are welcome in the group even if your individual therapist works somewhere else. We will coordinate with them directly, with your written consent, because the group is far more effective when somebody is helping you apply it.
- ✓Taught curriculum with handouts and homework — no round-the-room sharing
- ✓Capped at eight, two facilitators, two hours weekly
- ✓24 weeks for a full pass; new groups open every 6 weeks
- ✓Open to clients whose individual therapist is elsewhere
What It Costs, Before You Have to Ask
Full DBT is more expensive than weekly therapy because it is more than weekly therapy, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. Here are the actual numbers.
Individual DBT sessions are $190 for 50 minutes. The skills group is $95 per two-hour session. The full programme therefore runs about $285 a week. The initial assessment is $280 for 90 minutes. Phone coaching is included in the individual fee rather than billed separately — we think billing it would defeat the purpose.
We are in network with Regence, SelectHealth, PEHP and Aetna. Most plans cover both the individual sessions and the group, though the group is sometimes coded differently and we will check that specifically for your plan before you commit.
Six reduced-fee places are held across the programme, starting at $80 for individual and $40 for group. Ask at the assessment. Cost is a legitimate reason to start with the group alone and add individual work later, and we will tell you if that is a reasonable sequence for your situation.
- ✓$190 individual · $95 per group session · about $285/week for full DBT
- ✓$280 for the 90-minute assessment; phone coaching included, never billed
- ✓In network with Regence, SelectHealth, PEHP and Aetna
- ✓Six reduced-fee places from $80 individual / $40 group
Second Floor, 400 South
Downtown, with a dedicated group room that seats eight and a separate entrance from the individual rooms.
Things People Ask at the Assessment
Do I have to do the group as well?
For full DBT, yes — the skills group is where the actual skills are taught, and individual sessions are largely about applying them. We do offer individual DBT alone where a group is genuinely impossible for scheduling reasons, and we will be straightforward that it is a weaker version of the treatment rather than an equivalent one.
Do I need a borderline personality disorder diagnosis?
No. DBT was developed for chronic suicidality and BPD and has its strongest evidence base there, but it works well for self-harm, eating disorders, substance use, and for people who simply describe emotions that arrive faster and harder than they can manage. Plenty of our clients carry no diagnosis of that kind at all.
How is this different from CBT?
DBT grew out of CBT and shares its structure, but adds acceptance alongside change — the dialectic in the name. In practice that means less time spent disputing whether a thought is accurate and more time on tolerating distress that cannot be immediately fixed, plus the group, the coaching and the diary card as core machinery rather than optional extras.
What does phone coaching actually mean?
You can call your individual therapist between sessions for brief, in-the-moment skills coaching — typically five to ten minutes, aimed at getting a skill used rather than at processing. There are agreed limits, set at orientation, including what happens outside hours. It is included in the fee and never billed separately.
When can I start?
Individual work usually starts within two weeks of assessment. Groups open every six weeks, so the wait for a module boundary is at most a month and a half — and most people begin individual sessions and the diary card while waiting for the next group to open.
Do you take insurance?
We are in network with Regence, SelectHealth, PEHP and Aetna. Most cover individual sessions and the group, though the group is sometimes coded differently and occasionally treated as an unusual benefit. We check your specific plan for both before you commit rather than after.
Can I start with just the group to keep costs down?
Often yes, and we will say honestly whether that is a sensible sequence in your case. The group alone is a real intervention, and adding individual work later is a common route. For anyone with active self-harm or suicidality we will recommend the full model and explain why.
An Assessment, Not a Sales Call
Ninety minutes to work out whether full DBT, the group alone, or something else entirely is the right treatment for you. We regularly recommend something other than our own programme, and we will say so plainly. You can also write to hello@wayfinderdbt.com.
Request an Assessment
Tell us what has and has not worked before — that is the single most useful thing you can send. A DBT therapist replies personally, usually within one business day.