The Stony Brook Difference

The Stony Brook Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) program to treat people with borderline personality disorder was established in 2017. Our program is designed to improve quality and access to care for people with more severe mental health problems. And we’re proud of the many ways in which we’ve accomplished this. 

Intensively trained providers

When you’re leading an emotionally painful life, it’s important to be treated by a professional who has the proper training. Otherwise sessions can seem frustrating and uncomfortable. No one wants to leave a session feeling misunderstood and judged. 

Our team leaders and program director are DBT-Linehan board certified (DBT-LBC), and each of the program’s expert providers have all completed a 16-week long, intensive training program followed by a year of monthly consultations with an expert DBT consultant. We also offer annual refresher training for our team and community providers. 

As part of an academic medical center, Stony Brook DBT offers a wealth of experience from outpatient child psychiatry, outpatient adult psychiatry and inpatient psychiatry and provides DBT skills groups on our adult and child inpatient units. We also have a psychologist and postdoctoral associate trained in DBT working several days a week in our Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program (CPEP) to help identify individuals who are displaying symptoms and might benefit from a referral to our program.

A biosocial-based approach

Stony Brook’s DBT program is informed by the biosocial model.  This means that we aim to understand each individual’s problems wholistically, as the sum of their biology, developmental learning experiences and social environment. We understand that individuals often don’t create their own problems and they still have to solve them.   

Effective 14-week and 24-week curriculum

While our standard adult and multifamily-adolescent programs run for 24 weeks, we also offer a condensed, 14-week DBT University program for young adults aged 18-25. This program is designed to better fit the academic calendar of most colleges. 
 

Covered by insurance

Our DBT program is the only full, comprehensive one on Long Island that accepts most insurance plans. That’s huge, when you consider that for those paying out of pocket, DBT can cost upwards of $20k per year.