Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Build Skills for Real Life
Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Build Skills for Real Life
Online DBT Counseling in Indiana, Illinois, and Colorado
ANTHEM | BCBS | AENTA | CIGNA
CARELON | ASCENSION | PRIVATE PAY
Online DBT Counseling in Indiana, Illinois, and Colorado
When emotions hit hard and fast, willpower alone is not enough. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, teaches concrete skills for managing intense emotions, navigating stressful situations, maintaining healthy relationships with yourself and others, and staying grounded in the present moment. At Lotus Counseling Services, we teach DBT skills and help you hone the techniques that will allow you to live the life you want and deserve.
ANTHEM | BCBS | AETNA | CIGNA | CARELON |ASCENSION | PRIVATE PAY
Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a structured, evidence based approach originally developed to help people who feel emotions more intensely than most. The word "dialectical" refers to holding two truths at once: you are doing the best you can, and you can also learn to do better. DBT organizes its tools into four skill areas: mindfulness (staying present instead of spiraling), distress tolerance (getting through a crisis without making it worse), emotion regulation (understanding and shifting emotional responses), and interpersonal effectiveness (asking for what you need and setting limits while keeping relationships intact).
What is DBT?
What DBT Helps With
Dialectical Behavior Therapy was built for intense emotions, and that is where it shines. Our therapists draw on DBT skills for anxiety and panic, depression, emotional overwhelm, anger, impulsive urges, relationship conflict, self criticism, and the aftermath of trauma. You do not need any particular diagnosis to benefit. If your emotions feel bigger than your current coping tools, DBT gives you a bigger toolbox.
What DBT Sessions Look
When engaging in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, you will meet with your therapist each week over secure video from wherever you are comfortable. Early sessions focus on understanding your emotional patterns and choosing which skills to start with. From there, sessions blend skill teaching, real practice, and troubleshooting what happened when you tried a skill during the week. DBT skills are meant to be used in daily life, so your therapist will work with you to explore opportunities to practice in-between sessions.
DBT’s Effectiveness
Dialectical Behavior Therapy was the first therapy proven effective in clinical trials for people experiencing the most intense forms of emotional distress. Since then, decades of research have shown that DBT helps with depression, anxiety, anger, impulsive behaviors, and difficulty managing emotions, whether or not any particular diagnosis is present.
This matters for a practical reason: DBT has been proven to work for people whose emotions felt completely unmanageable, and everyone has experienced intensely painful emotions at some point. If DBT can help in the hardest moments, it can help in yours. DBT truly is for everyone.
DBT's staying power comes from how the skills are learned. You practice them between sessions, in real situations, until reaching for a skill becomes second nature. That means the benefits do not stay in the therapy room. Long after therapy ends, a difficult moment can be met with a skill instead of a spiral.
Online DBT in Indiana, Illinois, and Colorado
Dialectical Behavior Therapy translates exceptionally well to online therapy. Because DBT is centered on learning and practicing concrete skills, everything that makes it effective in an office works just as well through secure video. Research on telehealth consistently finds that online DBT produces outcomes comparable to in person treatment.
Lotus Counseling Services provides DBT therapy to individuals throughout Indiana, Illinois, and Colorado, all through secure video. For a skills based approach, online sessions carry a quiet advantage: the place where you learn a skill is the place where you will use it. There is no transition from the therapy office back to real life, because your sessions already happen inside your real life. And when emotions are running high, logging in from your couch is a much lower hurdle than driving across town.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Dialectical Behavior Therapy actually grew out of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, so the two share a foundation: both are structured, evidence based approaches that look at how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors influence one another. The difference is emphasis. CBT focuses on identifying unhelpful thought patterns and changing them. DBT balances that change with acceptance, teaching you to manage intense emotions, tolerate distress, and navigate relationships without requiring your feelings to change first. Put simply, CBT asks whether a thought is accurate and helpful, while DBT also asks how to get through this moment without making it worse. The two work well together, and many individuals benefit from a blend of both. You can learn more on our Cognitive Behavioral Therapy page.
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DBT organizes its skills into four modules. Mindfulness teaches you to observe your thoughts and emotions in the present moment without judgment, and it serves as the foundation for everything else. Distress Tolerance gives you crisis survival skills for getting through intensely painful moments without making them worse. Emotion Regulation helps you name your emotions, understand what triggers them, and reduce their intensity over time. Interpersonal Effectiveness teaches you to ask for what you need, set boundaries, and handle conflict while preserving both your relationships and your self respect. In DBT therapy at Lotus, your therapist draws from all four modules based on what you need most.
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As structured as you want it to be. Some individuals prefer a regimented, skills focused approach, working through the modules deliberately, practicing between sessions, and tracking progress along the way. Others prefer their therapist to weave DBT skills organically into whatever they are already working through, so the skills arrive in context rather than as a curriculum. Your therapist will tailor the level of structure to your needs and preferences, and that balance can shift as therapy evolves.
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No. Full DBT programs typically include a weekly skills group alongside individual therapy, and those programs are valuable for individuals who need that level of support. At Lotus, our therapists teach DBT skills within your individual sessions, so you learn the same tools in a private, one on one setting that moves at your pace. For many individuals, this is exactly the right fit.
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Yes. At Lotus Counseling Services, DBT sessions are covered by insurance plans. We accept Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Cigna, Carelon, Ascension, and many EAP plans, and we offer private pay at $150 per session. Our team verifies your benefits before your first appointment so you know what to expect.
Ready to Take the First Step?
You've already done something brave by looking for support. Our experienced therapists are here to help you move forward, at a pace that works for you. Reach out today to get matched with a therapist and schedule your first session.
