Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Addiction near Boston, Massachusetts

When emotions feel overwhelming, DBT offers real tools for stability.

What Is Dialectical Behavior Therapy?

At Greater Boston Addiction Centers, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a vital part of how we help people overcome substance use disorders and mental health challenges. DBT is an evidence-based approach that focuses on teaching skills to manage strong emotions and build better relationships, which makes it especially useful for people struggling with addiction, anxiety, depression, and trauma.

Our DBT program is tailored to help you recognize and handle overwhelming emotions, teaching practical skills for managing stress, making healthier decisions, and reducing harmful behaviors, while finding a balance between accepting yourself and working toward positive change.

Benefits of DBT

• Balancing emotions. Mindfulness and acceptance skills for managing overwhelming feelings and intense emotional reactions.
• Improved coping skills. Practical tools to stay calm and focused under stress, without turning to substances.
• Better relationships. Learning to express needs and set boundaries reduces the interpersonal conflicts that can trigger substance use.
• Reduced risk of relapse. Strategies to cope with cravings and high-risk situations and make healthier choices during tough moments.
• Increased self-awareness. A stronger sense of self and more confidence in your ability to manage recovery.

Who DBT Is Right For

DBT may be appropriate for adults who struggle with intense emotions, impulsivity, unstable relationships, substance use, or a history of self-harm, or whose emotions shift quickly and are slow to settle back down. It’s been adapted for people with a range of diagnoses, including addiction, borderline personality disorder, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. A clinical assessment helps determine whether DBT is a good fit for your symptoms, safety needs, treatment history, and recovery goals, and it tends to be especially helpful when emotional distress is contributing to repeated substance use, risky behavior, conflict, or difficulty maintaining progress after a setback.

The Stages and Targets of DBT

DBT uses a structured system of stages and treatment targets, so the most urgent concerns get addressed first rather than everything at once.

1. Gaining behavioral control. Treatment prioritizes safety, life-threatening behaviors, severe substance use, self-harm, and anything that interferes with therapy, reducing immediate danger before building further skills.
2. Addressing emotional suffering. Once behavior stabilizes, treatment can turn to the pain underneath it, trauma symptoms, shame, grief, or avoidance, helping you experience emotion without becoming overwhelmed or relying on harmful coping.
3. Improving daily life. The focus shifts to quality-of-life concerns: maintaining relationships, meeting responsibilities, and applying DBT skills more independently.
4. Building meaning and connection. The final stage focuses on fulfillment, purpose, and long-term personal growth, beyond symptom management or avoiding relapse.

What the Research Shows

Studies on DBT indicate it’s an effective treatment for reducing suicidal behavior and self-harm, reducing hospitalizations and ER visits, and decreasing depression and anxiety. Up to 86% of DBT patients experience a remission of symptoms after completing treatment, with 56% still in remission at six-month follow-up, and research has found that up to 77% of people no longer meet the criteria for borderline personality disorder after a year of DBT.

How DBT Is Delivered

DBT may be provided through individual therapy, group skills training, one-on-one skills coaching, or a combination, depending on your symptoms, goals, and level of care.

• Individual DBT therapy focuses on your highest-priority treatment targets, often using behavior chain analysis to examine a recent episode, substance use, self-harm, conflict, or avoidance, and find the point where a DBT skill could interrupt the pattern.
• Group DBT therapy works more like a structured skills class than an open-ended processing group: a clinician teaches specific skills, explains when to use them, and guides practice, with built-in accountability and support from peers.
• DBT skills training teaches the core skill areas in a group or one-on-one setting, focused specifically on learning and practicing the tools themselves.

DBT vs. CBT

DBT and CBT overlap but aren’t interchangeable. CBT is mainly about identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts. DBT keeps some of that structure but puts more weight on skills for managing emotions and relationships in real time, organized into stages and a target hierarchy, which matters most when it’s the intensity of a feeling, not just the thought behind it, that’s driving the substance use. Many treatment plans use both together.

Who We Treat With DBT

DBT is a cornerstone of how we support treatment for alcohol, opioid, benzodiazepine, heroin, methamphetamine, prescription drug, marijuana, and polysubstance addiction, helping clients reshape the negative thought patterns and responses to triggers underneath each one.

Where DBT Fits Into Treatment

DBT is woven into individual therapy, group therapy, day treatment (PHP), and our intensive outpatient program (IOP), and it’s commonly paired with trauma therapy and dual diagnosis treatment when a co-occurring mental health condition is part of what’s driving the substance use.

Does Insurance Cover DBT?

Many private plans cover medically necessary treatment, though deductibles, copays, coinsurance, and authorization requirements vary by plan. We work with most major insurers and verify your benefits for free; checking doesn’t commit you to treatment.

What the Admission Process Looks Like

It begins with an initial consultation where our team assesses your emotional and behavioral needs, reviews your mental health history, and explores your therapy goals, which lets us determine if DBT is the right fit and build a personalized plan. From there, admissions handles the paperwork and coordinates with your insurance provider.

Finding DBT Near Boston

We’re located at 322 Reservoir Street, Needham, MA 02494, serving Dedham, West Roxbury, Newton, and Boston. Call (877) 920-6583, or verify your insurance online.

Frequently asked questions