what is the difference between dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and dbt informed therapy?
What is Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and what is therapy “informed” by Dialectical Behaviour Therapy?
There are important differences between Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and “DBT-informed” therapy.“ DBT-informed” is a useful term as it identifies that programming is not DBT, and at the same time it is informed by some aspects of DBT. Therapies that are DBT-informed may incorporate some concepts or components of DBT, and at the same time they are indicating they are not DBT.
One useful way of thinking about DBT programs compared to “DBT-informed” programs might be a metaphor about cars. Let’s say you’d like to get a car. You are told Car A is available. You’re excited! You’re choosing a Car A because it has been developed, thoroughly researched, and quality tested so you can be confident that this car, compared to others, has the best likelihood of being the kind of car you need, and of having reliable quality. The car contains all necessary parts, including tires, a metal frame, doors, an engine, steering wheel, safety measures like seatbelts and airbags (everything you’re being told you're getting). This is what we can think of as “Adherent and Comprehensive DBT”.
Another car is called “Car A-informed”. It might have some of the same car parts, though we might not know how many. Maybe it has everything that Car A has, except no doors, or everything Car A has, except no engine. Maybe it is only 4 tires. We really don’t know until we’ve asked some questions. We might say that this second car was “informed” by Car A. Maybe it looks the same as Car A, or you are told that it is Car A, and at the same time we would not say it is Car A. We would not say it is the car we can have the most confidence in helping you get where you want to go.
Linehan Board Certification is a quality check on the DBT that a clinic is providing. To go back to our metaphor, it would be possible for a car to include all of the car parts of Car A, and at the same time be produced by either excellent, highly trained mechanics and car experts, or by a group with no quality control. In this scenario, you might be getting exactly the right car produced in a very high-quality environment, or you might not. You really don’t know without someone else coming in and checking the quality of the production and service used to build and provide the car. This is why verification of quality is a common process in environments as varied as car production, pharmaceutical production, and restaurants. Yet, quality checks on therapy are surprisingly rare.
While there are multiple “Certifying Bodies” for DBT, the standards for these certifying bodies vary widely. Some certifying bodies tell their trainees that they are “certified in DBT” and can practice DBT effectively and competently after a weekend of training.
Only one certifying body was developed with the involvement of the treatment developer, Dr. Marsha Linehan. This is the Linehan Board of Certification (LBC). LBC certification is a highly rigorous process that includes interviews with clinicians, and clients, reviews of all policies and procedures of a clinic, and observation of the clinicians at work.
When we at Broadleaf Health completed the LBC certification process in 2022, we had a combined level of experience of approximately 50 years on our team, and the process took approximately 6 months. Finding out that we had been certified by the LBC was a career highlight for all of us at Broadleaf Health.
So, why go through all of this? Simply put, we wanted to do a quality check on ourselves, so that people who are seeking DBT can know that they are getting what they are being told they are getting. We did not want to be telling people we were giving them DBT without making sure that we were:
Providing all components of DBT.
Providing the high quality DBT that everyone deserves.
We believe quality and competence matter when it comes to helping you build the life you want.