The first DBT group session you will ever take will always be surrounded by uncertainty. It’s natural to wonder what the experience will feel like, whether you’ll be expected to speak, or if you’ll fit in. These concerns are common, but they shouldn’t stop you from seeking support.
Knowing what to expect before your first session can ease anxiety and help you walk in feeling more prepared, informed, and confident about the therapeutic process.
We can help you understand what to expect before your first DBT session in a group and what can help you start healing!
What to Expect in a Complete DBT Treatment Program?
DBT isn’t limited to a one-hour therapy appointment every week. It’s a structured treatment program where each component plays a different role in helping you manage emotions, respond to stress, and build healthier behaviors.
Think of each part as a piece of the puzzle. Together, they create a support system that extends beyond the therapist’s office. While every DBT program may not be the same, your therapy support should include:
1. Individual Therapy (Your Personalized Treatment Space)
This is where your DBT journey becomes personal. During weekly one-on-one sessions, your therapist helps you review situations that occurred during the week, identify emotional triggers, and understand why certain reactions happened. Together, you’ll work on applying DBT skills to real-life challenges, celebrate progress, and adjust your treatment goals as you continue to grow.
2. Skills Training Groups (Where You Learn the “How”)
If individual therapy focuses on your experiences, skills training groups focus on your toolkit. Rather than functioning like a traditional support group, these sessions are structured like a classroom.
A therapist teaches practical DBT skills, such as mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness to all participants. You eventually practice using them through discussions, exercises, and homework that prepare you for everyday situations.
3. Telephone Coaching (Support When Life Doesn’t Wait)
The most difficult moments rarely happen during therapy sessions. That’s why DBT includes telephone coaching. If you’re struggling to apply a skill during an emotionally challenging situation outside your therapeutic space, your therapist can provide brief, real-time guidance to help you use the techniques you’ve already learned.
The purpose isn’t ongoing counseling over the phone; it’s helping you put DBT into practice when you need it most. However, many groups have limited telephonic DBT coaching.
4. Consultation Team (Support Behind the Scenes)
One unique aspect of DBT is that your therapist isn’t working alone. Behind the scenes, DBT clinicians regularly meet with a consultation team made up of other trained professionals. These meetings allow therapists to discuss treatment strategies, solve clinical challenges, and ensure they’re delivering DBT according to evidence-based guidelines.
While you won’t attend these sessions, they help maintain the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of your care.
What Are the Core Skills You Can Learn in DBT?
Every DBT group session follows a structured curriculum built around four core skill modules. Rather than simply discussing emotions, participants learn practical techniques during each DBT therapy session.
1. Mindfulness
Mindfulness teaches you to stay focused on the present moment without judging your thoughts or emotions. It helps reduce emotional overwhelm, improve concentration, and increase awareness before reacting to stressful situations.
2. Distress Tolerance
This DBT skill focuses on coping with emotional crises without making the situation worse. Participants learn healthy ways to tolerate distress, manage painful emotions, and resist impulsive or self-destructive behaviors during difficult moments.
3. Emotion Regulation
Emotion regulation helps you understand what triggers your emotions and how to respond to them more effectively. The goal is to reduce emotional vulnerability, improve mood stability, and develop healthier coping strategies instead of reacting impulsively.
4. Interpersonal Effectiveness
Healthy relationships require clear communication and healthy boundaries. This module teaches participants how to express their needs confidently, say no when necessary, resolve conflicts respectfully, and maintain balanced relationships without sacrificing self-respect.
Learning these core DBT skills is the foundation of successful therapy, but the skills themselves are only part of the journey.
How they’re taught, practiced, and applied to your daily life depends largely on the therapist guiding you. That’s why choosing the right therapist is the most important factor.
What Happens in the First DBT Group Session?
Most group DBT sessions are held once a week for 1.5 to 2.5 hours and are led by one or two trained therapists. In the sessions, the therapists follow a step-by-step therapy program, which is as follows:
1. You’ll Be Welcomed and Introduced to the Group
When you arrive, the therapist will welcome everyone, explain the purpose of the group, and review basic expectations. This usually includes confidentiality, respectful communication, attendance policies, and how each DBT group session will be conducted. Most therapists also remind participants that sharing personal experiences is always voluntary.
2. Learning The DBT Skill of The Day
Next, the therapist introduces the skill for the day. Instead of simply talking about emotions, the session focuses on teaching evidence-based techniques from one of the four DBT skill modules (Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, or Interpersonal Effectiveness). Worksheets, real-life examples, and guided explanations make each concept easier to understand and apply.
3. Group Discussion and Skill Sharing
After learning the new skill, participants discuss how it relates to real-life situations. You can ask questions, clarify concepts, and hear how others have applied the same techniques. There is no pressure to speak if you’re uncomfortable, but listening to different perspectives often helps people realize they are not alone in their experiences.
4. Practicing Skills in Real-Life Scenarios
Learning doesn’t stop with discussion. During the DBT therapy session, therapists guide the group through practical exercises such as activities, role-playing difficult conversations, communication practice, or distress tolerance techniques. These exercises help transform new concepts into skills you can confidently use outside the therapy room.
5. Homework and Preparing for the Next Session
Before the session ends, participants receive a homework assignment designed to reinforce the skill they learned. This could be reading or practicing, completing worksheets, or updating the diary card each day.
In the next group DBT session, the therapist reviews this homework to understand what worked well and where additional guidance may be needed. Regular practice between sessions is considered one of the most important factors in developing lasting emotional regulation skills.
What Conditions Can DBT Treat?
A DBT therapy session can treat many mental health conditions. These are some of the conditions you can tackle with DBT skills:
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Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
DBT has its strongest established evidence base in treating BPD, particularly when self-harm or suicidal behaviors are present.
Symptoms DBT Helps With: Intense mood swings, fear of abandonment, unstable relationships, impulsive behavior, chronic emptiness, self-harm, suicidal thoughts.
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Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
It may be especially helpful when depression occurs alongside emotional dysregulation, self-harm, or BPD.
Symptoms DBT Helps With: Persistent sadness, loss of interest, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness, poor concentration, sleep and appetite changes.
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Anxiety Disorders
DBT may complement established anxiety treatments when emotional reactivity or difficulty tolerating distress is a central concern.
Symptoms DBT Helps With: Excessive worry, restlessness, muscle tension, irritability, difficulty concentrating, panic attacks, sleep disturbances.
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Specialized approaches such as DBT-PTSD and DBT with prolonged exposure have also demonstrated benefits for reducing PTSD symptoms.
Symptoms DBT Helps With: Flashbacks, nightmares, emotional numbness, hypervigilance, avoidance of trauma reminders, irritability.
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Eating Disorders
Evidence is particularly promising for reducing binge eating, purging, and emotion-driven eating, although comprehensive eating disorder treatment may also require medical and nutritional care.
Symptoms DBT Helps With: Binge eating, restrictive eating, purging behaviors, distorted body image, intense fear of weight gain.
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Substance Use Disorders (SUD)
DBT for substance use disorders may be particularly relevant when addiction occurs alongside BPD, self-harm, or severe emotional dysregulation.
Symptoms DBT Helps With: Strong cravings, loss of control over substance use, withdrawal symptoms, continued use despite harmful consequences.
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Bipolar Disorder
Current evidence is promising but remains more preliminary than the evidence supporting DBT for BPD.
Symptoms DBT Helps With: Alternating episodes of depression and mania, impulsivity, racing thoughts, decreased need for sleep, irritability.
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Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Research suggests that DBT-based group treatment may improve ADHD symptoms, executive functioning, and quality of life, particularly in adults.
Symptoms DBT Helps With: Inattention, impulsivity, hyperactivity, poor organization, emotional reactivity, difficulty completing tasks.
NOTE: While group DBT is effective for teaching coping skills, treatment plans are individualized and may also include one-on-one therapy, medication, or other evidence-based interventions depending on the diagnosis.
Where to Get DBT Sessions in Philadelphia?
While there are many providers of DBT therapy in Philadelphia, Growth Thru Change promises effective and accessible care. We serve therapy through both in-person and virtual care.
Our DBT program can help you:
- Recognize emotional patterns before they become overwhelming and respond with greater awareness instead of reacting impulsively.
- Learn practical DBT skills to regulate intense emotions, navigate stressful situations, and build healthier ways of coping with everyday challenges.
- Strengthen your relationships by improving communication, setting healthy boundaries, and responding more effectively during conflict.
- Receive support through weekly individual therapy, skills training groups, mindfulness practice, and between-session coaching to reinforce what you learn in therapy.
- Develop lasting emotional resilience by combining evidence-based DBT techniques with a relational, supportive approach.
Clients can attend our virtual DBT group appointments and get accessible care without other commitments. These virtual DBT services are also available throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Connect with us to try your first DBT session!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How do I know if DBT Group therapy is right for me?
DBT group therapy may help if intense emotions, impulsive reactions, relationship difficulties, or crises disrupt daily life. It is best suited to people willing to practice structured skills between sessions and learn alongside others facing similar challenges.
Q. Is DBT therapy always done in a group, or one-on-one too?
DBT can include both weekly group skills training and individual therapy. Group sessions teach practical skills, while one-to-one sessions apply them to your specific patterns and goals. At Growth Thru Change, individual DBT counseling is optional.
Q. Do I have to speak or share in a DBT group session?
You are not expected to disclose every personal detail in a DBT group. Participation is encouraged, but you can share at a manageable pace. Sessions focus mainly on learning, discussing, and practicing skills rather than publicly processing personal trauma.
Q. What is the 24-hour rule in DBT?
In traditional DBT, routine between-session coaching may pause for 24 hours after self-harm or suicidal behavior to avoid unintentionally reinforcing it. Scheduled therapy and emergency support are not withdrawn, and each program should explain its specific policy.
Q. Are virtual DBT sessions available outside Philadelphia?
Yes. Our virtual DBT group is available to adults across Pennsylvania, including outside Philadelphia. Individual online DBT may also be available in New Jersey, depending on therapist licensing and whether virtual treatment suits your needs.
Q. Do I need a BPD diagnosis to join a DBT group?
No. You do not need a borderline personality disorder diagnosis to join a DBT group. DBT skills can help people managing intense emotions, anxiety, trauma responses, impulsivity, relationship conflict, chronic stress, or difficulty coping during overwhelming situations.
Q. How long does a DBT group session last?
Our virtual DBT skills group lasts 90 minutes and meets every Thursday from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. This provides time to learn new skills, discuss practical applications, ask questions, and strengthen learning through structured weekly practice.
Q. Why choose Growth Thru Change for DBT therapy in Philadelphia?
Growth Thru Change offers relational, neuroinclusive, and LGBTQIA+-affirming DBT support rather than an all in one program. Our virtual group combines evidence-based skills, consistent weekly structure, peer connection, and optional individual DBT counseling for more personalized support.
