We work from locations across London and online. Please see individual therapists' profiles in the "Team > About Us" section for their locations. Our groups are run in King's Cross, Islington and online via Zoom. For people who cannot access our services due to location and mobility issues or debilitating anxiety we are offering therapy and skills training via video conferencing.
No, a diagnosis is not required. We don’t see any diagnosis as a definitive statement on who you are but rather as a signpost for understanding how you can be best supported to thrive in all areas of life. While some people find a diagnosis helpful as a starting point, it’s important to recognise that it describes the challenges you face rather than exploring what’s going on beneath them.
Our programmes are designed for anyone struggling with intense emotions, overwhelming distress, impulsivity, problematic behaviours, or difficulties in relationships - whether or not they have a formal diagnosis. The skills we teach can support emotional regulation, mood swings, ADHD, anger, depression, anxiety, and relationship challenges, ultimately helping you build a life worth living.
Even if you’re not in crisis, DBT skills classes can be valuable for deepening emotional literacy, understanding how emotions influence behaviour, and improving relationship effectiveness.
The initial assessment is an essential first step in ensuring you receive the most effective support and that your time and energy are directed toward the path forward that is most relevant to your difficulties and needs. This session, lasting around 50 minutes, is designed to help us better understand your unique challenges, particularly focusing on life-long patterns of emotional dysregulation, behaviours, and relational difficulties.
During this time, we’ll ask specific questions about various aspects of your personality and functioning. These insights allow us to determine whether our service is the right fit for your needs and how we can best support you on your journey toward emotional regulation and well-being.
We may also invite you to complete self-reporting questionnaires, which give us a more in-depth understanding of your experiences. These tools ensure we’re not missing any critical details that could shape your therapeutic process.
In some cases, additional sessions might be necessary to gather a fuller picture, or we may recommend alternative services that are better suited to your goals. The aim is always to ensure you receive the support that holds most relevance to your difficulties and will make the biggest difference in your life.
Following the assessment process, you will be offered three one-to-one orientation sessions (this number may be adjusted based on your individual needs and circumstances). These sessions will introduce you to your chosen model of therapy and help you get the most out of the programme. During these orientation sessions you will:
DBT
- learn about the biosocial model of emotion dysregulation and how it relates to your challenges,
- be supported in coming up with a crisis plan,
- learn some DBT tools, such as chain analysis, that you will continue building on whilst in the group,
- identify your goals for therapy and address motivation and commitment (if relevant),
- be made aware of the expectations of the programme of your choice.
MBT
- learn about the mentalization model of attachment and how it relates to your challenges,
- learn about the key concepts of MBT so that you feel confident about how the treatment works and what you are trying to achieve. These include looking at the following topics: what is mentalizing and how do we recognise when we are not doing it, and getting to know your attachment style and how it impacts your relationships,
- set your goals for treatment and consider about potential challenges,
- be made aware of the expectations of the programme of your choice.
The Dialectical Behaviour Therapy programme requires a minimum commitment to 36 weeks. It is possible to extend treatment when needed or to repeat some of the skills classes to solidify progress and skills acquisition.
The Mentalization-Based Treatment requires a minimum commitment to 12 months. However, it is possible to start spacing out individual sessions after the first four months of treatment. This is subject to progress and review by the team.
The length of any other form of therapy will be agreed with the assessing therapist and reviewed on a regular basis.
Individual sessions last 50 minutes. Groups last either 90 minutes or 2 hours. Couple therapy sessions can be extended to 75 minutes.
- The 2-hour groups* are delivered by two facilitators in each session. One facilitator leads the mindfulness practice and homework review, and the other leads the teaching component. These groups include a 10-minute break halfway through. Clients who experience significant dysregulation that may interfere with participation are required to attend the 2-hour group, as the extended time and co-facilitation provide additional structure and support.
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The 90-minute groups cover the same core material as the 2-hour groups but are smaller in size and are facilitated by one skills trainer at a time. There is no scheduled break between the homework review and teaching components. These groups are suitable for individuals with emotion regulation difficulties who are either enrolled in the comprehensive DBT programme or attending skills training on a modular basis.
* Should a lower number of participants sign up for (or attend) the 2-hour group we reserve the right to make alterations to the group structure, e.g. we will remove the break between the homework review and teaching part of the group and shorten the group to 90 minutes. This is because in smaller groups less time is required for mindfulness and homework review. The group will be facilitated by one facilitator at a time instead of two.
There are up to ten participants in the 90-minute DBT groups, up to twelve in the 2-hour groups and up to nine participants in the MBT group.
Yes, you can, although we encourage all clients to attend three pre-group orientation sessions, particularly if you don’t have a therapist familiar with DBT. The skills classes might complement 1:2:1 therapy you may already be receiving outside our team. Should you encounter any difficulties engaging with the group, one-to-one check-in sessions are available to support you and enhance your learning experience. We also recommend that clients arrange additional one-to-one support outside of the programme for the best outcomes.
DBT skills groups are suitable for individuals who have completed individual therapy and now wish to focus on developing new skills or for those in the stabilisation and safety phase of trauma-focused therapy. In some cases, we may determine that attending the skills group without individual support is not appropriate, and we will explain our reasons in such instances.
Some of our therapists and skills trainers are registered providers for private insurance companies, i.e. CIGNA, AXA-PPP, BUPA, Vitality (formerly PruHealth), Aviva, Exeter Friendly and other smaller private insurance companies. If you would like to pay for your therapy through private healthcare insurance, please contact your insurance company before speaking to our team to check if you are covered and ask for an authorisation code. We will need your membership number and authorisation code before scheduling the initial session. Your insurance company will most likely require a letter of recommendation from your GP or a psychiatrist if you wish to claim under a private medical insurance policy.
We are experienced in working with people who have endured various challenges in life from anxiety, trauma and depression through to severe interpersonal problems, self-harm and other difficulties associated with personality and behaviour. These difficulties may show themselves as angry outbursts, high stress, anxiety attacks, self-injury, suicide attempts and difficulties with eating, self-medicating or misusing substances. The therapies we provide, in particular DBT, have also been shown to help those who experience emotion dysregulation in the wider context of living with ADHD and autism.
We have specialist skills in delivering evidence-based psychological therapies recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for borderline personality disorder, also known as emotionally unstable or emotion regulation disorder, and post-traumatic stress and in delivering Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) to clients with a history of repeated bouts of depression.
No, we are not. We operate on an appointment basis, however, we are committed to supporting individuals whose primary motivation is to manage their intense emotions and problematic behaviours and urges. Many of our clients who engage in treatment notice that the frequency of their crises decreases over time. If you are in crisis right now, you can access more relevant support through statutory services, your GP, Accident and Emergency Department or by calling 999.
Our programmes are transdiagnostic, meaning you don’t need a specific formal diagnosis to participate and benefit from our therapies. However, if you’re looking for a psychiatric diagnosis or support with medication management, we encourage you to seek these services independently. However, if you’d like guidance on finding the right professional, feel free to reach out to us at contact@mind-reframed.com. We’d be happy to offer recommendations.
Yes, our service is confidential. Keeping trust and respecting our clients autonomy are fundamental to therapeutic relationship. If a situation arises where it is legally or ethically necessary to breach confidentiality we would endeavour to discuss this with you first.
For example, if someone communicates to their therapist that they are going to harm themselves or another person, we are obliged to report this or take action on the situation. We will make every effort to discuss the circumstances with the client first and see how we could problem-solve the situation collaboratively. In some circumstances we will inform your GP, clinical team or other relevant health professionals about your involvement with our respective teams and will let you know about it beforehand.
As both DBT and MBT are team-based treatments, clinicians discuss their clients' progress and seek the team's support to continue offering effective treatment as part of the weekly team consultation. No information will be shared outside of the consultation team, except where there are concerns around safety or court order.
We recognise that for some clients it may be daunting to take the first step. You're welcome to make a referral on their behalf, however, it is important that they are copied in the email correspondence. We will respond by providing the relevant information about what's on offer and which therapists have availability for assessment.
Yes, we are fully insured. Also, each of our therapists operate on a self-employed basis and they have professional liability insurance.
Yes, we are members of different professional bodies such as the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), Society for Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (SfDBT), British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) or Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Their ethical frameworks govern our work.
Individual therapists' cancellation policies may vary slightly and they are normally discussed during one of the initial sessions or terms are sent via email. Generally, however, our policy for clients on the comprehensive DBT and MBT programmes allows for 6 holiday absences a year and we request at least two weeks’ notice ahead of any scheduled holidays. Clients who engage in one-to-one or couple therapy with one of our associate therapists will receive a contract from them outlining their own cancellation policy.
Complaints policy
We welcome feedback from our clients and are committed to improving our services. Complaints concerning services contracted and paid for directly through our company will be considered under this complaints policy.
If you wish to raise a concern about your experience within one of our programmes, we would first encourage you, where appropriate, to raise it with your one-to-one therapist or the clinician most directly involved. This provides an opportunity to explore the difficulty within your treatment and, where relevant, to draw on the skills and principles taught within the programme. If you would like support in doing this, your individual therapist or a group facilitator can help you identify and use relevant skills. The purpose of this process is to support effective communication and the skilful management of difficulties when they arise.
If this does not resolve your concern, and your complaint relates to a service contracted and paid for through our company, please email contact@mind-reframed.com. Please outline the nature of your concern, provide relevant information and let us know what you would like to happen.
We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days and will begin considering it as soon as reasonably practicable.
The process will involve discussing your concerns within the appropriate DBT or MBT consultation team. This enables relevant information and different clinical perspectives to be considered and allows the principles underpinning the treatment to inform our response. We aim to consider the concerns raised and provide you with a response within 30 days. If this is not possible, we will let you know.
Concerns about individual therapy
Individual therapy associated with our programmes is provided by independently practising clinicians. Your therapeutic contract is directly with your clinician, to whom you pay your individual therapy fees. The clinician retains professional and clinical responsibility for the individual therapy they provide and practises in accordance with the requirements of their relevant professional or regulatory body.
If you have a concern or complaint specifically about your individual therapy, we encourage you, where appropriate, to raise this directly with your therapist in the first instance. Your therapist may draw on the support of the DBT or MBT consultation team in considering the concerns raised and their response. If the matter cannot be resolved, the therapist can provide information about their complaints procedure and the relevant professional or regulatory body through which a formal complaint may be pursued.
Mind-Reframed welcomes feedback about your experience of the wider DBT or MBT programme. As DBT and MBT are team-based treatments, concerns relating to your treatment will be discussed within the relevant consultation team. Where appropriate, this may include consideration of treatment, risk, clinical standards and the safe and effective delivery of the programme.
Where concerns raise issues relating to client safety, safeguarding, professional conduct or the safe delivery of our programmes, Mind-Reframed may take appropriate action within its own clinical governance responsibilities. However, receiving or considering such concerns does not mean that Mind-Reframed assumes responsibility for investigating or determining complaints about individual therapy provided under a separate therapeutic contract. Formal complaints about that work should be directed to the clinician and, where appropriate, their professional or regulatory body.
Unreasonable or unacceptable behaviour
We recognise that people may contact us when they are distressed, frustrated or dissatisfied, and that complaints may involve strong emotions. We will not treat someone unfavourably simply because they have raised a complaint, expressed disagreement or communicated their concerns strongly.
We do, however, expect communication with our clinicians and staff to remain respectful. Abusive, threatening, intimidating, discriminatory or persistently hostile behaviour towards clinicians, facilitators, administrative staff or other participants will not be accepted.
We may also place reasonable limits on communications where contact becomes excessively frequent, repetitive or disproportionate, where substantially the same matters continue to be raised after they have been addressed, or where the manner or volume of communication significantly interferes with the provision of clinical services or the ability of staff or clinicians to carry out their roles effectively.
In serious circumstances, including threatening or abusive behaviour or behaviour that compromises the safety or effective functioning of the service, we may take further appropriate action. This may include reviewing whether continued participation in a Mind-Reframed programme remains clinically appropriate and safe.
Any decision to place limits on communication will relate to the nature or pattern of the behaviour rather than to the fact that a person has made a complaint. We will continue to consider legitimate concerns about safety, safeguarding or professional conduct even where boundaries have been placed around the way in which someone may communicate with us.