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A mental health professional is like the conductor.

Thoughts from our Public Member - Chris Kallas I remember taking a music class in seventh grade. We learned to read music, and some of the highlights of the history of music. I enjoyed it thoroughly. But with all the other things I was studying, I didn’t study it again. Then about 10 years ago…
Chris Kallas
October 10, 2019
Blogs

Spotlight: Dr. Jennifer Sayrs

Jennifer Sayrs, PhD., a DBT – LBC Certified Clinician, is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Evidence Based Treatment Center of Seattle (EBTCS). As part of her role there, she serves as the director of the DBT Center, which is one of the first DBT programs in the nation to be certified by the…
Kimberly
September 22, 2019
Blogs

Why Certification?

Newsletter column by Public Member of the DBT LBC Board, Chris Kallas When someone you love has a mental illness, or even emotional difficulties, you don’t think, “Where can I find someone to help him who has a PhD in clinical psychology, who has at least five years of experience in treating someone with this…
Chris Kallas
August 10, 2019
Blogs

Dr Marsha Linehan awarded Emeritus status

With her retirement last month, Dr. Marsha Linehan has been awarded the title of Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Washington, and Director Emeritus of the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics. Please join us in congratulating her on this honor as she enters the next chapter of a life worth living.
Joan Russo
June 13, 2019
Blogs

Reality Check by Juliet Nelson

If Alec Miller challenges you to begin the DBT program certification process together and months pass and you still don’t get going, you might ask yourself, WTF? Why not? Beware, this is not a tale of overcoming obstacles, rising to the occasion and finally accomplishing that goal. This is the tale of a new and…
Joan Russo
June 13, 2019
Blogs

May is BPD Awareness Month

Thoughts from our Public Member - Chris Kallas May is BPD Awareness Month. Thanks largely to the efforts of NEA BPD, on April 1, 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 1005, which recognized the month of May as Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month. The vote was 414-0. (Nope, not a typo; even…
Chris Kallas
April 28, 2019
Blogs

Spotlight: Emily Vanderpool M.S., LPC

Everyone has their own path that led them to become a DBT-LBC clinician. For me, it all started with autism. I grew up with a brother who was diagnosed with high functioning autism, and I witnessed first-hand the emotional difficulties that individuals with these diagnoses face as they navigate life in a neuro-typical world. Thus,…
Joan Russo
March 16, 2019
Blogs

My Path Toward Certification – Courtney Westin, LMFT

Courtney Westin LMFT, first began practicing DBT in 2013, when she moved to California with her husband. Before that, Courtney ran her own practice for four years in Bethesda, Maryland, with a focus on clients with eating disorders. She began practicing DBT for four years working with the DBT Center of Orange County. In 2017,…
Joan Russo
March 7, 2019
Blogs

Spotlight: Lisa Fitzgibbons

PhD, ABPP - Certified Clinician "My initial interest in DBT was sparked when I completed an internship rotation on inpatient borderline personality disorder unit for women in 1999. The unit did not use DBT; however, I really enjoyed the women on the unit and as a result read Linehan’s groundbreaking text. Who knew I would…
Kimberly
January 8, 2019
Blogs

Clinical trial shows dialectical behavior therapy effectiveness in reducing risk in suicidal adolescents.

Adapted from • Science Update, June 27, 2018 Researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, and collaborators at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor- University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center, and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA have published findings from a year’s long RTC showing…
Joan Russo
June 28, 2018
Blogs

Spotlight: Jacqueline Stratton

When asked, “What made you want to go for DBT-Linehan Board Certification?,” Jacqueline Stratton, MSW, LICSW and now DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician and Founder of MN DBT Providers Coalition LLC, said, “I thought it would be kinda cool,” and “Why not try something that would enhance my practice and take my skills to…
Joan Russo
February 14, 2018
Blogs

Need a little Inspiration to get Certified?

Consider that DBT's developer, Marsha Linehan, has been profiled in the just released 2018 edition of TIME magazine's Great Scientists. TIME's list of the 100, "geniuses, eccentrics, and visionaries who transformed our world" included Marsha along with such luminaries as Jonas Salk, Marie Curie, Louis Pasteur, Charles Darwin, Margaret Mead, Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein and…
Joan Russo
January 11, 2018
Blogs

Spotlight: Nick Salsman

My name is Nick Salsman and I am a DBT-LBC certified clinician, as well as a volunteer for the DBT-LBC fundraising committee. I choose to volunteer my time to this organization because I believe that the mission of DBT-LBC is critical. This issue of Certification Matters is dedicated to May being Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)…
Joan Russo
December 8, 2017