Our Therapeutic Modalities

Our methods are a careful curation of evidence-based practices from the rich research base of contextual behavioral therapeutic traditions. Grounded in a consistent framework, our approach is personalized to you — so therapy is focused, flexible, and effective.

We use these modalities to help you to…

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    Manage, understand, and experience your emotions

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    Be more present

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    Disentangle yourself from fruitless thinking, worrying, and ruminating

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    Cultivate your sense of self, and your self-respect

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    Clarify what is most important to you and what you want out of your life

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    Break free from self-defeating habits and build constructive ones

A Contextually-focused approach to DBT

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidenced-based treatment which was developed by Marsha Linehan in the early nineties.  It was originally created to help individuals struggling with suicidal and/or para-suicidal behaviors.  Since then, research has shown DBT to be a promising treatment for a variety of presenting issues. However, in the 30 years since its development, certain limitations and inconsistencies have been identified, and much of the research science that DBT was based on has continued to evolve. C-DBT stands for Contextually-Focused DBT, which is an approach to DBT that seeks to resolve some of its pitfalls, by updating and informing it by other contextual behavioral therapies and the research of contemporary luminary scientists, such as Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett’s theory of constructed emotions, and Dr. Bruce Perry’s neurosequential model. C-DBT is being developed by Dr. Paul Holmes, PsyD, a tenured professor of the University of Chicago, and owner of The Emotion Management Program of Chicago, after his career-long experience as a DBT therapist, Linehan-trained trainer, professor, and program consultant.

In traditional DBT, we work on increasing behavioral skills in the following areas:

  1. Mindfulness

  2. Distress Tolerance

  3. Emotion Regulation

  4. Interpersonal Effectiveness

In C-DBT, our focus is on increasing our sense of meaning and agency, and expanding our behavioral repertoires in the face of challenging thoughts and emotions. C-DBT process training groups involve learning in the following areas:

  1. Chronic Distress

  2. Mindfulness/Living in the Present Moment

  3. Distress Management

  4. Emotion Management

  5. Values: Developing Meaning & a Sense of Agency.

While there are many fundamental similarities between C-DBT and traditional DBT, C-DBT treatment will include an emphasis on acceptance, present moment awareness, emotional experiencing, building a life around our values, and being accountable to the commitments that we make. In sessions, this plays out as a highly experiential, engaging, and connecting therapeutic experience. A process-based, rather than protocol-based treatment ensures that your DBT therapy is tailored to you. You are not a box to be checked - we believe your treatment should reflect that.

Our Contextually-focused approach to DBT is an integration of DBT, ACT, RFT, and FAP, which are all evidence-based practices for a wide variety of presenting issues and populations, all drawn from the same scientific philosophy of functional contextualism. You can read more about each of these modalities below. Simply put, we practice in a way that integrates the most effective features of multiple, evidence-based, and complimentary therapies into a cohesive and curated treatment plan.

Chronic Distress

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Mindfulness

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Managing Distress

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Emotion Management

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Developing Meaning & a Sense of Agency

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Chronic Distress 〰️ Mindfulness 〰️ Managing Distress 〰️ Emotion Management 〰️ Developing Meaning & a Sense of Agency 〰️

✺ Other Contextual Behavioral Modalities ✺

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy—pronounced as the word “act”—is a mindfulness-based behavioral therapy designed to cultivate psychological flexibility: the ability to stay present, open up to experience, and take action guided by your values.

    At the heart of ACT is a powerful belief: even in our most painful patterns, there is misdirected healthy energy. The work isn’t to fight or suppress that energy—it’s to harness and redirect it toward building a meaningful, vital life.

    Are you ready to liberate your mind? Do you want to get better at pivoting toward what truly matters to you?

    ACT is a robust, evidence-based therapy, supported by extensive research and shown to be effective across a wide range of clinical populations—similar and complementary to those treated by Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).

  • Research consistently shows that the quality of the therapeutic relationship—more than any specific modality—is what determines the effectiveness of therapy. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) builds directly on this insight, emphasizing authentically caring and emotionally resonant connections between therapist and client.

    We integrate FAP as a powerful complement to other modalities, using the real-time dynamics between us in the therapy room to help you progress toward your goals in your most important relationships.

    FAP is associated with increased social connectedness, and, when combined with other methods, it has been found to lead to “dramatic and pervasive improvements that far exceeded the goals of treatment” (Kohlenberg et al., 1999).

  • Relational Frame Theory (RFT) is a research-based model of how human language functions, that laid the groundwork for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

    As humans, language doesn't just help us communicate—it creates our experience. The moment we become aware of a thought or feeling, we start labeling, analyzing, and weaving it into a story. Over time, these stories can become more powerful than the experiences themselves.

    According to RFT, what we experience as "the mind" is the outcome of these complex language processes. As such, psychological pathology can be understood as an outcome of language processes ‘gone wrong’. RFT looks at how to harness language processes to help us get un-stuck and establish a more flexible way of relating to our challenges.

  • SPACE​ ​(Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) is designed to help children and adolescents struggling with anxiety, OCD, and related issues. ​T​his approach is designed specifically for parents of children who are struggling, and focuses on empowering parents to adjust their own behaviors, rather than forcing changes in their child. By reducing an ‘accommodating’ approach to a child’s anxiety, parents are able to engage in a manner that ultimately enhances the child’s ability to cope with anxious thoughts and feelings. Developed by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at the Yale Child Study Center, SPACE has been rigorously tested and proven effective in clinical trials. Another behavioral approach that carefully considers the context of the family, SPACE coheres with our contextually-focused behavioral approach.