Since opening in 1984, the Resource Group has become one of Baltimore’s leading providers of DBT. Located in Towson, MD, the Resource Group’s DBT program is committed to helping you live a life worth living.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, is an effective treatment for high-risk, complex emotional and behavioral concerns that a set of healthy coping skills to replace ineffective behaviors and manage intense emotions. Individuals exhibiting symptoms of borderline personality disorder, self-injury, suicidality, addiction, eating disorders, or other severe mood or anxiety concerns may benefit from DBT.

what are multifamily skills groups?

Multifamily Skills Group is the adaptation of traditional DBT designed for adolescent clients (age 13 – 18) and their families. Clients attend group with a parent or caregiver instead of alone.

why must a caregiver attend?

The design of multifamily skills group is based on the evidence that suggests that teens benefit when families attend group together to learn core DBT skills. In this group, caregivers learn how to effectively communicate with their children, enhance their own coping skills, and empower their child to use DBT skills to deal with problems more effectively. When adolescents have an example of behavior to mimic and someone to hold them accountable, they are much more likely to consistently utilize the skills they learned in DBT for the short and long term.

Group expectations

While enrolled in our DBT program, each client and an identified parent or caregiver attend group weekly. Group meets on Wednesday nights from 6:30 – 8:30pm. The full skills curriculum is 24 weeks, which is often repeated to create a 1-year program. It is expected and required that each client and the identified caregiver attend each group session.

What happens during these sessions?

1. A mindfulness exercise to center and focus the work in each session
2. Review of last week’s “homework” assignment
3. Learning a new DBT skill
4. Receiving a homework assignment to utilize the new skill

How to Get Started

Those who are interested in engaging in the Resource Group’s Multifamily DBT group must complete an intake evaluation. Adolescent clients will be scheduled with a DBT clinician to complete an evaluation and if the adolescent is determined to be appropriate for group, the identified caregiver will be scheduled to complete and intake evaluation. Upon completion of these evaluations, clients will be added to the waitlist and enter group when a new module begins.