At Chrysalis Psychology & Wellbeing, we offer Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) as part of our evidence-based approach to supporting people who experience emotions intensely and struggle with emotion regulation, behavioural concerns, trauma, stress, and a range of other complex emotional difficulties.
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You feel things deeply. You always have.
When something good happens, you light up. When something hurts, it does not just sting. It floods. You feel it in your chest, in your throat, in your hands. By the time your mind catches up to what is happening, your body has already reacted.
You have been told to calm down. To stop overreacting. To not take things so personally. Maybe you have spent years trying to do exactly that. Maybe you have learned to swallow your reactions, only to have them spill out later as exhaustion, shutdown, or a sudden sharp word you wish you could take back.
It is not weakness. It is not drama. It is a nervous system that responds quickly and intensely. Without the right tools, that intensity can feel like it is running your life rather than the other way around.
That is exactly where DBT comes in.
DBT is built on a simple but powerful idea. Two things can be true at the same time.
You are doing the best you can with the resources you currently have. AND you can learn to do things differently. You deserve compassion for what you are going through. AND there are skills that can genuinely help.
This is what the word dialectical means. It is the ability to hold acceptance and change in the same hand, instead of being torn between them. For people who have spent years being told they are either too much or not enough, this single shift can be the most healing part of the work.
DBT was developed in the late 1980s by psychologist Dr Marsha Linehan, originally to support people experiencing chronic suicidal thoughts and what we now understand as borderline personality disorder. Three decades on, it has become one of the most extensively researched psychological treatments in the world (Linehan, 2015; Frontiers in Psychology, 2025).
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy is a structured, skills-based therapy that combines cognitive-behavioural techniques with mindfulness practices drawn from contemplative traditions.
It is built on the understanding that some people are born with more sensitive nervous systems. When those sensitive systems grow up in environments where their emotions were dismissed, criticised, or overlooked, they may never have learned how to regulate what they feel. The intensity becomes the problem, not because the person is broken, but because the skills were never taught.
DBT teaches those skills. Explicitly. Step by step. With practice and patience and a clinician walking alongside you.
The treatment works across four core skill modules. Two are about acceptance, helping you tolerate what is happening right now. Two are about change, helping you build the life you actually want.
Mindfulness is the foundation. It teaches you to notice your thoughts and feelings as they arise, without immediately reacting to them. This is the skill that creates the pause between feeling and doing, the small space in which a different choice becomes possible (Linehan, 2015).
Distress Tolerance is for the moments when emotions are at full volume and a long-term solution is not available right now. Crisis survival skills, self-soothing through the senses, and radical acceptance all live in this module. This is the toolkit for getting through the hardest hours without making the situation worse.
Emotion Regulation is the longer-term work. It teaches you to identify what you are feeling, understand what your emotions are signalling, reduce vulnerability to emotional spirals, and gradually shift the patterns that have been running on autopilot for years.
Interpersonal Effectiveness focuses on relationships. How to ask for what you need. How to say no without guilt. How to hold your boundaries while preserving the connections that matter to you. This is often the module that brings the biggest practical change.
DBT has accumulated a strong evidence base across more than three decades of research. A 2024 systematic review of randomised controlled trials confirmed that DBT may produce sustained reductions in self-injurious behaviour, suicidality, and the symptoms of borderline personality disorder, with benefits lasting up to twenty-four months after treatment ends (Sanchez-Garcia et al., 2024).
Research also supports its use for adolescents experiencing self-harm and suicidal ideation. A meta-analysis of 21 studies involving 1,673 adolescents found small to moderate reductions in self-harm and suicidal ideation when DBT was compared with control conditions (Kothgassner et al., 2021). A long-term follow-up study published in 2024 found that adolescents who achieved early remission from deliberate self-harm through DBT-A also showed stronger emotion regulation capacity twelve years later (Solerod-Dibaj et al., 2024).
Beyond its original use, evidence supports DBT for emotion dysregulation more broadly. A 2024 systematic review confirmed DBT skills as a valuable intervention for adolescents experiencing mood and emotional regulation difficulties (Mossini, 2024). Earlier research demonstrated that DBT may improve emotion regulation and reduce eating disorder symptoms in binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa (Vasiliu, 2021).
Our psychologists may consider DBT for clients experiencing:
DBT looks different from traditional talk therapy. Sessions are structured, skill-focused, and grounded in your real life.
Your psychologist will work with you to:
You will leave sessions with practical tools you can use in the car park, during a hard conversation, in the middle of a sleepless night. The point is not to talk endlessly about the problem. The point is to build a different way of moving through it.
Comprehensive DBT traditionally includes individual therapy, skills training, and between-session support. At Chrysalis Psychology & Wellbeing, our psychologists may offer individual DBT-informed therapy or refer to our group therapy programmes, which include dedicated DBT skills groups, depending on what suits your needs.
Research supports the effectiveness of DBT skills delivered via secure telehealth, and many people find it more sustainable to attend sessions from home. We offer DBT-informed individual therapy via secure video for clients located anywhere in Australia, including regional Tasmania and other states.
All you need is a private, quiet space, a device with a camera, and a stable internet connection.
Our psychologists at Chrysalis Psychology & Wellbeing are trained in multiple evidence-based approaches, and DBT is often integrated with others depending on your needs. These include CBT for thinking patterns, EMDR for trauma processing, Schema Therapy for long-standing relational patterns, and Compassion Focused Therapy for shame and self-criticism. Your psychologist will work with you to find the combination that best fits your situation and goals.
You do not need a diagnosis to start. You do not need to be in crisis. You just need to be ready to take one step.
Whether you are in Hobart, regional Tasmania, or anywhere else in Australia, support is available. Our psychologists are ready to help.
At Chrysalis Psychology & Wellbeing, our psychologists are trained in DBT and ready to help.
Phone: (03) 6263 6319
Email: info@chrysalispsychwell.com.au
Website: www.chrysalispsychwell.com.au
Knopwood House, Level 2, 38 Montpelier Retreat, Battery Point, Tasmania 7004
Face-to-face in Battery Point, Hobart. Telehealth across Australia.
“When Your Emotions Hit Like a Wave: How DBT Skills Help You Steady Yourself”
"When Trauma Gets Stuck: How EMDR Therapy Helps"
"What Is CBT, and Why Do So Many Psychologists Use It?"- Read our blog posts.
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