Understand your patterns. Learn what to do differently when they show up.
We offer structured DBT programmes in London and live online, including comprehensive DBT and DBT skills groups.
You might understand your triggers and where some of your patterns come from, but when emotions hit hard, that understanding can quickly disappear. You might react impulsively, shut down, push someone away, hurt yourself or fall back on ways of coping that create more problems afterwards.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) helps you create more space between what you feel and what you do next. You’ll learn practical skills to regulate emotions, tolerate distress, reduce impulsive reactions and communicate more effectively.
We offer structured DBT programmes in London and live online, including comprehensive DBT and DBT skills groups.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Maybe your emotions seem to have a volume dial that goes higher than other people’s.
A message goes unanswered and anxiety takes over. Someone sounds slightly different and you wonder whether you’ve done something wrong. A disagreement becomes “They’re going to leave me”. Someone needing space becomes “I don’t matter to them”. You might know that seeking reassurance or reacting immediately won’t help, but in the moment the urge to find relief can feel overwhelming.
You might experience emotions intensely, struggle with rejection or uncertainty, act impulsively when distressed, withdraw or become defensive when you feel criticised, or use self-harm, substances, food, sex or other behaviours to cope. You might find it difficult to communicate what you need or understand your patterns well but still keep repeating them.
Some of these difficulties may be described in diagnostic terms as Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), also known as Emotionally Unstable Personality (EUPD), although we don’t see a diagnosis as a complete description of a person or their experiences. And you certainly don’t need a diagnosis to benefit from DBT.
DBT can also support difficulties associated with depression, anxiety, anger, eating, PTSD, Complex PTSD and other emotional or mental health difficulties. ADHD, autism or other forms of neurodivergence may also shape how you experience and manage emotions.
DBT recognises that emotional sensitivity, your nervous system, your early experiences and the environments you’ve had to adapt to can all shape how you respond today.
Understanding why a pattern developed matters. So does learning what you can do differently now.
Two ways to access our DBT programme
We offer two ways of accessing DBT. You don’t need to work out which one you need before contacting us. Your assessment can help us understand what’s happening and consider which level of support is appropriate.
- Comprehensive 36-week DBT Programme
Comprehensive DBT may be particularly appropriate for people experiencing more complex difficulties, including those associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD/EUPD), self-harm, suicidality and significant emotional dysregulation. It combines weekly individual DBT therapy + weekly DBT skills group + phone skills coaching.
Your individual sessions focus on applying DBT to the problems and patterns happening in your own life. The weekly skills group teaches practical tools for mindfulness, emotional regulation, tolerating distress and navigating relationships. Phone coaching helps you practise using those skills when difficulties arise between sessions, rather than having to wait until your next appointment.
The clinicians delivering your treatment participate in a weekly DBT consultation team, helping us coordinate treatment and support one another in delivering DBT consistently.
Comprehensive DBT can be delivered in London or online.
- DBT Skills Only Pathway (with optional one-to-one check-ins)
You can complete our structured DBT skills programme without having weekly individual therapy with our team.
Following an assessment, you’ll have individual orientation sessions to prepare you for the group and introduce some of the foundations of DBT. You’ll then work through four core modules: 8-week Core Mindfulness & Nervous System Mapping, 8-week Distress Tolerance, 12-week Emotion Regulation and 8-week Interpersonal Effectiveness. The complete DBT skills programme takes 36 weeks, but you commit to one module at a time, rather than the full cycle from the outset.
You can have individual therapy elsewhere alongside the skills group. You can also book one-to-one check-in sessions with our team during any of the modules if you need additional support with applying the skills, overcoming difficulties with participation or getting more from your learning. If your difficulties are significant or complex, we may recommend ongoing individual therapeutic support.
Our DBT skills groups can also support the stabilisation and safety stage of trauma-focused therapy, including our DBT FOR COMPLEX TRAUMA programme. If you’re already working with another therapist or service, we can consider during your assessment how DBT skills training might fit alongside your existing treatment.
King’s Cross, Islington, London
SATURDAYS | 10AM-12PM* OR 12.15-1.45PM
Our in-person DBT skills groups take place at Barnsbury Community Centre, 12 Jays Street, London N1 0FE. The venue is approximately 12 minutes’ walk from King’s Cross station, with Angel and Caledonian Road & Barnsbury also nearby.
Next entry: 24 October 2026
Core Mindfulness & Nervous System Mapping (Trauma-Informed) | 8 weeks | £680 (£85 per session)
The programme then continues with Distress Tolerance from 9 January 2027, Interpersonal Effectiveness from 6 March and Emotion Regulation from 15 May.
No sessions: 19 & 26 December 2026; 2 January, 27 March, 1 & 29 May 2027.
Online via Zoom
Mondays | 5.45-7.15pm
Next entry: 2 November 2026
Core Mindfulness & Nervous System Mapping (Trauma-Informed) | 8 weeks | £680 (£85 per session)
The programme then continues with Distress Tolerance from 11 January 2027, Emotion Regulation from 8 March and Interpersonal Effectiveness from 21 June.
No sessions: 28 December 2026; 4 January, 29 March, 3 & 31 May 2027.
Tuesdays | 4-5.30pm
Next entry: 17 November 2026
Distress Tolerance | 8 weeks | £680 (£85 per session)
The programme then continues with Emotion Regulation from 26 January 2027, Interpersonal Effectiveness from 20 April and Core Mindfulness & Nervous System Mapping (Trauma-Informed) from 15 June.
No sessions: 22 & 29 December 2026.
Tuesdays | 6-7.30pm
Next entry: 17 November 2026
Emotion Regulation | 12 weeks | £1,020 (£85 per session)
The programme then continues with Interpersonal Effectiveness from 23 February 2027, Core Mindfulness & Nervous System Mapping (Trauma-Informed) from 20 April and Distress Tolerance from 15 June.
No sessions: 22 & 29 December 2026.
Wednesdays | 6-8pm*
Next entry: 16 December 2026
Interpersonal Effectiveness | 8 weeks | £680 (£85 per session)
The programme then continues with Core Mindfulness & Nervous System Mapping (Trauma-Informed) from 24 February 2027, Distress Tolerance from 21 April and Emotion Regulation from 16 June.
No sessions: 23 & 30 December 2026.
Thursdays | 5.30-7.30pm*
Next entry: 8 October 2026
Core Mindfulness & Nervous System Mapping (Trauma-Informed) | 8 weeks | £680 (£85 per session)
The programme then continues with Distress Tolerance from 3 December 2026, Emotion Regulation from 11 February 2027 and Interpersonal Effectiveness from 6 May.
No sessions: 24 & 31 December 2026.
Advanced Relationship Skills in Action | Wednesdays 6-7.30pm
Next entry: 3 February 2027
Advanced Relationship Skills in Action | 10 weeks | £850 (£85 per session)
This advanced Zoom-based module is offered twice a year. Contact us to register your interest.
*If fewer participants sign up for or attend a 2-hour group, we may shorten the session to 90 minutes, as smaller groups typically require less time for mindfulness practice and homework review. Smaller groups may also be facilitated by one facilitator rather than two.
What will I learn?
The four core modules build on one another, helping you develop skills that can be practised in everyday life rather than simply understood intellectually.
- 8-week Core Mindfulness and Nervous System Mapping (Trauma-Informed)
“Things happen so quickly that I don’t realise I’m overwhelmed until I’ve already reacted”
Mindfulness is at the heart of DBT. It helps you become more aware of what’s happening in your thoughts, emotions, body and environment so that you have a better chance of choosing your response rather than automatically following it.
We’ve expanded our Core Mindfulness module to include Nervous System Mapping, helping you recognise patterns of activation, regulation and shutdown.
You’ll practise how to: notice thoughts, emotions, urges and bodily sensations, recognise patterns of nervous-system activation and shutdown, observe what’s happening without immediately reacting, bring attention back to the present, step back from thoughts rather than automatically treating them as facts, recognise when you’ve moved into reactivity and respond more intentionally.
A thought left unattended can quickly become a story, an emotion, an urge and then an action. Mindfulness helps you notice that process earlier.
- 8-week Distress Tolerance
“When I’m really distressed, I just need the feeling to stop”
When emotional pain becomes overwhelming, the urge to escape it can become incredibly powerful. You might self-harm, drink, use substances, send the message, start the argument, binge, disappear or make an impulsive decision simply because you need something to change now.
Distress Tolerance is about learning how to get through difficult moments without making the situation worse. You’ll learn practical strategies involving both body and mind to manage emotional crises more safely, reduce impulsive reactions and work with intense physiological arousal. You’ll also learn to tolerate feelings you cannot immediately change, recognise what is and isn’t within your control, and practise acceptance without confusing it with approval.
The aim isn’t to make painful experiences pleasant. It’s to create enough space between an urge and an action to make a different choice, and to help you stay with yourself while the intensity passes.
- 12-week Emotion Regulation
“I know my reaction seems too big afterwards, but in the moment it feels completely real”
Emotion Regulation helps you understand your emotional system rather than constantly feeling controlled by it. You’ll explore what emotions do, what makes you more vulnerable to intense reactions, and how thoughts, physical states, urges and behaviours can keep an emotion going.
You’ll learn to identify and name emotions more accurately, understand what they may be communicating and check whether they fit the facts of a situation. You’ll also practise changing emotional responses when they aren’t helping, reducing avoidance, building positive experiences and becoming more comfortable experiencing emotions without immediately needing to escape them.
The aim isn’t to stop feeling. It’s to develop a different relationship with your emotions so they can give you useful information without automatically deciding what happens next.
- 8-week Interpersonal Effectiveness
“I either don’t say what I need, or I wait until I’m so upset that it all comes out at once”
Relationships are often where our strongest emotional patterns become visible. You may struggle to ask for what you need, fear saying no, become overwhelmed during conflict or feel caught between keeping the relationship and respecting yourself.
Interpersonal Effectiveness teaches practical ways of navigating these moments. You’ll learn to communicate more clearly, ask for what you need, say no, set boundaries and manage disagreements while balancing your own needs with those of another person. You’ll also practise protecting your self-respect and recognising when to try to influence a situation and when acceptance may be more helpful.
Instead of repeatedly moving through familiar patterns such as defend → escalate → withdraw or fawn, you can begin creating more possibilities: understanding and validation → clarification → vulnerability → a clear request → repair.
Sometimes the other person will respond differently. Sometimes they won’t. The skill is also in recognising what you want to do next when you cannot control their response.
- 10-week Advanced Relationship Skills in Action
If you’ve completed the core DBT modules and want to develop your relationship skills further, you can join the advanced module. This programme moves beyond knowing what effective communication looks like and explores more deeply what happens inside an actual interaction.
You’ll explore areas including validation, dialectical thinking, the social engagement system, managing invalidation, balancing acceptance with influence and developing more flexible responses during difficult interpersonal moments.
Dedicated practice sessions give you opportunities to bring real-life situations and practise applying the skills with guidance from the facilitator.
What actually happens in a DBT skills group?
DBT skills groups are active and practical. This isn’t a traditional therapy group where you’re expected to disclose your deepest experiences or process your relationships with other group members. The primary focus is learning skills and figuring out how to apply them to your own life.
Each week, your facilitators introduce new DBT skills using explanation, examples, discussion and practical exercises. You’ll then practise the skills between sessions. At the beginning of the next session, we review that practice together. This gives you an opportunity to understand what worked, troubleshoot what didn’t and identify what may have got in the way.
You aren’t expected to arrive already knowing how to do this. Learning DBT is part understanding and part repetition. A skill that makes complete sense while you’re calm can be remarkably difficult to remember when you’re frightened, angry, ashamed or overwhelmed. That’s why practising between sessions is an important part of the programme.
DBT programme runs through a sequence of modules, with new participants joining at designated entry points. This means you may learn alongside people who are at different stages of their DBT programme, creating opportunities to share experiences, learn from one another and refine your skills with guidance from your facilitators.
How do I start DBT?
Everyone interested in joining the DBT programme will first have an assessment with a member of our team. You can learn more about our therapists in the ABOUT US page.
You don’t need a psychiatric diagnosis or referral. If you’re referred by a psychiatrist or therapist, they’re welcome to provide relevant information about your history, current difficulties, risk and previous treatment to support the assessment.
1. Assessment
You’ll first meet individually with one of our therapists. We’ll talk about what’s currently difficult, relevant parts of your history, previous therapy, patterns you’d like to change and what you’re hoping DBT might help you with.
This isn’t simply a screening exercise. It helps us begin developing a shared understanding of what’s happening and where you want your life to move. The fee for the assessment is £100.
2. Orientation
If DBT is appropriate, you’ll be offered three individual orientation sessions before joining your group. These sessions introduce important DBT ideas and practical tools, help you prepare for the programme and give you space to ask questions.
We’ll begin identifying treatment goals and looking at how DBT can be applied to the situations that are actually happening in your life. For more details about this process and what to expect, explore the FAQs section of this website.
3. Join your DBT group
You’ll then join at the next appropriate module entry point.
If you’re completing comprehensive DBT, you’ll attend your weekly individual DBT therapy alongside the skills group and have access to phone skills coaching between sessions.
When DBT might not be the right starting point
DBT is an active, practical therapy that involves looking closely at patterns of behaviour and practising new ways of responding. This requires a willingness to work towards behavioural change. If this isn’t your main focus at the moment, another type of therapy may be a better fit. A DBT skills group may also not be the right starting point if you are experiencing active psychosis, significant cognitive or learning difficulties, or substance use that makes it difficult to participate consistently and safely in the group. We consider this individually during the assessment, so you don’t need to work out for yourself whether DBT is right for you.
Fee Breakdown
- Comprehensive DBT programme, including individual therapy, weekly skills group and phone coaching: £185-£220 per week.
- DBT skills groups: £85 per session, payable for the full module.
- Individual DBT therapy, including orientation sessions: £100-£135 per session, depending on the therapist.
For full details, please visit the FEES section of this website.
We offer a limited number of reduced-fee places within our skills groups. If you’d like to be considered, please email us with some details about your financial circumstances.
Booking & Payment Terms
To reserve your place in a skills group, we require a 50% deposit of the module fee at the time of booking. The remaining balance is due one week before the module begins.
By enrolling, you are committing to the full module, and the module fee covers all sessions, including any that you are unable to attend. Payment of the deposit confirms your place in the group and constitutes acceptance of our Terms and Conditions and payment policy.
Fees for individual therapy sessions are paid directly to your therapist.