In DBT, unlike traditional forms of therapy, the skills group is the main modality of treatment due to the emphasis of learning the coping skills to address symptoms. Therefore, individual therapy is used to supplement the work done in group.    Personally, my typical client will see me weekly in group and 1-2 times per month for individual therapy.  In individual sessions, I will use DBT, CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), and psychodynamic approaches to address the client's issues.   Past issues and intense emotions that need to be worked through will be addressed in the individual sessions because the skills group does not have time for this and the emphasis in group is to learn the skills, not process.   Therefore, individual therapy provides the space and time to process at a deeper level.  Also, because clients are now exposed to coping skills that they are learning in group, the individual sessions can be used to go deeper with skill application, as the client can receive direct coaching and observations from the therapist on how skills are working and what needs to be changed.  

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As clients make improvement in their confidence of using skills and experience an alleviation in symptoms, often the frequency of individual sessions can be decreased.    As treatment progresses, clients often become more aware of key issues that are surfacing and use the individual sessions to bring up issues that they are stuck on.    My personal approach to individual therapy is to use the time efficiently so that clients leave each session feeling that they addressed the key issues, gained increased insight and understanding about themselves, and have an intention set about what combination of DBT skills they need to be concentrating on in order to keep making progress and momentum.  

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