Starting out as a new therapist - whether it’s beginning your internship or even once
you’ve obtained an associate license - can come with many challenges, both clinically and personally. I think many fellow therapists can agree that this can be a time of heightened feelings of inadequacy, imposter syndrome, and insecurity in your own abilities as a therapist, which can often lead to feeling pressure to perform. This pressure takes many forms: Needing to know everything and utilize several modalities, feeling like you need to “fix” people or that your clients need to have enough progress/change, and generally feeling like these are “should’s”rather than “could’s.”
First and foremost, I want to take the time to remind you that you do not and are not
expected to be perfect or know everything. This is what this period of your career is all about:
Having the time and space to learn, grow, and change at a realistic rate. I believe, and many
therapists may agree, that clients innately have everything they need within themselves to heal.
Our jobs as therapists are not to “fix” people, but rather to guide them in their path towards
achieving their goals and healing. Beyond that, there is so much research to support the idea that a large portion of what makes therapy effective for someone is not necessarily the modality or knowledge of the therapist themselves, but rather the strength of the professional relationship between client and therapist.
I also understand that it can feel much more secure to have tools and resources in your
back pocket to be able to further aide your client. With this in mind, I personally believe that
both new therapists and clients can benefit from knowing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).
When I was in grad school, I remember learning about DBT in my theories class and thinking,
“oh, I’m never going to use this.” Mainly, because true DBT is quite an intensive process for
both the client and the therapist. I did not learn until my internship that therapists can utilize the
main ideas of DBT - and the skills associated with them - in their daily practice without
necessarily being a “true” DBT therapist.
DBT, in it’s essence, is centered in four main concepts: Mindfulness, distress tolerance,
emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Despite DBT being created to treat
Borderline Personality Disorder, everyone can benefit from learning how to be in the present
moment without judgement or attachment, get through highly distressing situations without
making them worse, be able to change or lower your emotional state, and having both healthy
relationships and conflict.
In my DBT group, I like to use the analogy of DBT being like a smorgasbord of skills.
There are so many to pick and choose from for any one situation, and if one doesn’t work there is
always another to try! I personally have found DBT to be an invaluable part of my professional
training. I find that I can almost always tie a tenet into any issue a client presents with, and it has
consistently provided me with a base to fall back on should I find myself struggling to identify
how to best help a client. So, if you have resonated with any of the above sentiments, I highly
recommend taking a basic DBT training to learn more about how this modality can be helpful for
you, and clients.
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