DBT Center of NJ

10/20/2025

🔥 DBT: The Gold Standard Treatment Isn’t a Buzzword

DBT isn’t “just another therapy.” It’s one of the most replicated, research-backed treatments in mental health—built to help people who’ve tried everything else and still feel stuck.

📊 Decades of randomized controlled trials show:
• Major drops in self-harm and suicidal behaviors
• Fewer hospitalizations and ER visits
• Real gains in emotion regulation, relationships, and stability
• Proven impact on borderline personality disorder, PTSD, depression, anxiety, eating and substance use disorders

🌍 Tested across countries, cultures, and treatment settings. The results hold.

Because DBT doesn’t just teach coping skills—it builds a life worth living through a balance of:
Acceptance + Change. Mindfulness + Action. Compassion + Accountability.

That’s not marketing.
That’s science, skill, and staying power.

10/18/2025

💥"DBT-Informed” ≠ DBT

Anyone can say they do DBT or CBT. But evidence-based therapy isn’t just about the buzzwords—it’s about the structure.

Real DBT has:
• A consultation team
• Requires weekly individual therapy and weekly skills training.
• Offers phone coaching
• Adherence to the DBT model

If you don’t see the structure, you’re not getting the science.

You deserve therapy that’s more than “inspired by research.” You deserve therapy that is research-backed.

10/18/2025

Listen to your Wisemind.

Sometimes, your intuition knows before your mind has the words to explain. That sudden, uneasy feeling? That’s your gut speaking truth. You don’t owe anyone an explanation for honoring your inner boundaries. If your gut says No, it’s already a No, full stop. You can dissect the reasons later, but you don’t need to justify your peace in the moment.

Too often we override instinct in favor of politeness, pressure, or doubt. But let this be your reminder: not everything needs to be overanalyzed or rationalized. If it feels wrong, it is wrong,  for you. Trust that. Respect that. That inner "No" is wisdom, protection, and power.

✨ Protect your peace.
✨ Listen the first time.
✨ Choose clarity over confusion.

Swipe left on anything that doesn't feel right. You don’t need permission to say no. You just need the courage to listen to yourself.

10/17/2025

According to ChatGPT....

AI can sound validating. It can explain skills. But it can’t see you, hold you in compassion, or respond to your suffering in real time.

ChatGPT isn’t a licensed clinician. It can’t assess safety, track progress, or build a therapeutic relationship the foundation of real change in DBT.

⚠️ Dangers of Using ChatGPT as a Therapist
1. No Clinical Judgment or Accountability
ChatGPT isn’t a licensed clinician. It can’t assess risk, provide clinical judgment, or take responsibility for treatment outcomes. It also can’t monitor for safety issues like suicidality, abuse, or psychosis.
2. Lack of Therapeutic Relationship
Real therapy depends on attunement, empathy, trust, and repair, a human connection built over time. AI responses can simulate warmth but cannot provide genuine validation or relational healing.
3. Risk of Misinformation
ChatGPT can produce plausible but inaccurate information, especially around medication, diagnosis, or trauma treatment. Even small inaccuracies can be harmful in clinical contexts.
4. No Crisis or Safety Response
It cannot intervene in emergencies or coordinate care with supports, family, or crisis services. Users in distress may get a calm reply when urgent intervention is required.
5. Privacy and Confidentiality
Information shared in a chat is stored on servers and may not meet HIPAA or clinical confidentiality standards. Sensitive disclosures may not be protected as they are in therapy.
6. Oversimplified or Non-Individualized Support
ChatGPT provides generalized guidance, not personalized formulations. It lacks access to the client’s full history, current functioning, and environment — essential for safe, effective care.
7. Interference with Real Treatment
Using ChatGPT as a therapist substitute can delay or replace evidence-based care, reducing motivation to seek real therapy or DBT coaching that includes accountability and relational practice.

✅ Safe Use Guidelines

ChatGPT can be supportive as an adjunct, not a replacement:
• Psychoeducation (e.g., explaining DBT concepts)
• Skills review and reminders
• Motivation or journaling prompts
• Support between sessions, if approved by a licensed provider

10/17/2025

In today's look inside of Marsha Linehan's memoir, Building a Life Worth Living, Marsha delivers a message to those supporting people who are in deep suffering. "If you are with someone who is in hell, keep loving them, because in the end it will be transformative."

As a volunteer for DBT-LBC and a person with lived experience of borderline personality disorder, I can attest that it was the support and care of my DBT therapist that helped me survive my time in hell and make it through to the other side. For other DBT clients it may be their parents, siblings, extended family or friends that provide that support. When struggling and in pain, the compassionate care of those around you can make all the difference, especially, when the presenting symptoms may be difficult to understand.

These are some of the reasons I volunteer with DBT-LBC as their mission is to help suffering people find a treatment that works and find high-quality DBT being delivered as Marsha designed it to be.

Who has helped to support you on this journey? Let them know below 👇🏻

*Are you interested in learning more about the work of DBT-LBC ™ ? Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Youtube! Please reach out to contact@dbt-lbc.org for more information on how to help. Please also consider a donation to DBT-LBC ™ a gift in any amount helps link clients in need of DBT treatment with the care they deserve.

10/15/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Bb4hQs1fS/?mibextid=wwXIfr

10/12/2025

Observe and Describe: Awareness Before Action

When emotions rise, the brain says “Do something — now!”
DBT invites a pause instead.

First, observe what’s happening in your sensations, thoughts, and urges. Then, describe it in words — just the facts, not judgments.

“I notice tightness in my chest.”
“I’m having the thought that I can’t handle this.”

That simple pause leaves room for Wisemind to kick in.

What shifts for you when you pause to observe and describe instead of react?

10/11/2025

Quick and Dirty Skills Drop:

Radical acceptance isn’t giving up — it’s letting go of the fight with reality.

When you stop refusing to accept the outcome that exists, you can finally focus on change. That’s when peace sneaks in.

10/10/2025

You don’t have to like your emotions to validate them.

Validation ≠ agreement.
It’s saying: “Yeah, this makes sense given what I’ve been through.”

Then you can choose your next move instead of your emotion choosing it for you.

10/08/2025

Your brain isn’t a courtroom.
You don’t need a verdict on every thought or feeling.

10/07/2025

💔 Morning Grief
Some mornings, grief wakes up before you do. It fills the room before the light does.

🧘‍♀️Mindfulness skill: Observe and Describe. Notice what’s there—tight chest, heavy eyes, slow breath. Say it to yourself like a narrator: “Sadness is here.”
You don’t have to fix it.
Just name it.

💧 Distress Tolerance skill:
Self-Soothe with the senses.
Wrap in a blanket that feels like safety. ☕ Sip something warm.
Open a window—let real air meet the ache.

🌤️ Emotion Regulation skill: Opposite Action.
Grief says “stay in bed.”
You say “get up.”
Not to escape the pain—just to remind it you’re still here.

Both grief and love get a seat at the table this morning.


Acceptance

10/05/2025

🎬 Your thoughts aren’t facts — they’re reruns.

🧠 Quick & Dirty Skill Drop: Mindfulness of Current Thought

Ever notice your brain drop a thought like “everyone hates me” or “I’m a failure”?

Don’t fight it. Observe it.
“Oh hey, here comes my brain demanding my attention again.”

Then describe it.

“A wild anxious thought appears—dramatic, pacing, clutching a clipboard.”

Now the fun part: play with it.
Say it in a cartoon voice.
Repeat it 10 times. Sing it.
Or deliver it like you’re in a bad sitcom:

“I’m SUCH a failure!” Cue laugh track.

Do it enough times and it’s not truth anymore—it’s just noise.
You stop being in the thought and start being with it.

That’s mindfulness.
Seeing your thoughts clearly… and sometimes laughing at how dramatic they are.