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 up to three one-to-one orientation sessions (this number may be adjusted based on your individual needs and circumstances). These sessions will introduce you to the DBT model and help you get the most out of the group 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 34 weeks after the assessment process. The recommended length of this intensive treatment is at least one year. 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* have two facilitators during each session; one leads the mindfulness and homework review part and the other leads the teaching part of the session. These groups have a 10-minute break halfway through. Clients with significant behavioural dysregulation which might interfere with their participation are required to join the 2-hour group.
- The 90-minute groups cover the same material as the 2-hour group but have fewer participants, no break between the homework review and teaching part and are run by one skills facilitator at a time. They are open to individuals with emotion regulation difficulties who commit to the comprehensive programme or attend the skills group 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 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. Generally, however, our policy for clients on the 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.
We welcome feedback from our clients and are committed to improving our service. If you wish to raise a grievance, we would first encourage you to raise it with your one-to-one therapist (if you have one). This is so that you can be supported in using the skills and principles that are imparted in our programmes and to describe the situation accurately. If you don't yet have the skills, you can request support to use these and either your individual therapist or a group facilitator will help. The purpose of this process is to enhance skilful means of managing challenging situations in any contexts they arise.
If the above process is not satisfactory, please email your complaint to contact@mind-reframed.com and outline the nature of the problem, give as much information as possible and tell us what you want to happen. Your complaint will be acknowledged within not more than five working days and we will look into it shortly afterwards. The process will entail discussing your concerns in the respective DBT or MBT team meeting to gather all relevant information and ensure that various angles of the situation are considered and that the skills and/or theories that underpin our work are utilised in the response. We aim to conclude the process and get back to you within 30 days. If for any reason that is not possible we will let you know. If your complaint relates to one of the therapists, they will be supported by the consultation team in considering various angles of the situation before responding to you.
Please note that Mind-Reframed Limited acts as an agent connecting clients with therapists who are suitably qualified and solely responsible for their clinical work. We welcome feedback on your therapy experience and want to hear any concerns as client safety and clinical competence are of great importance to us. However, any legal disputes or formal complaints are to be raised with the clinician involved or their professional registration bodies.