DBT Group Therapy in Florham Park, NJ
Comprehensive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) groups for kids, tweens, teens, and young adults (8–22) who are tired of being at the mercy of their own emotions and ready for tools that really will work.
DBT groups in Florham Park, NJ, and virtually across 44 states, including New York.
When emotions feel like they’re taking over everything.
If you’re a parent to a child or teen, you know the look:
The explosion that comes from nowhere, the crisis that can’t wait, the aftermath of regret and shame.
You’ve tried everything, and still the intensity wins.
If you’re a young adult, you know it too.
The feeling of being swept away before you can stop it. The exhaustion of living at the mercy of your own emotions.
The constant wondering, “Will it always be this hard?”
We’ve seen it before, and we know that it can change.
At Behavioral Care Center of New Jersey, we have spent decades working with the most complex emotional presentations in tweens, teens, and young adults, and we bring our expertise and genuine warmth to every family we work with.
Thoughts you or your child might be carrying:
- “I can’t control how I feel. It just takes over.”
- “I always ruin everything.”
- “No one understands how hard this is.”
- “I know what I should do. I just can’t do it.”
- “I’m exhausted by my own emotions.”
DBT Groups makes sure those thoughts don’t become lasting ones.
DBT Group Therapy in Florham Park, NJ
What is DBT Group Therapy?
DBT is not just a group. It is a comprehensive, multi-component treatment, and at Behavioral Care Center of New Jersey, we deliver it the way the evidence says it works.
We offer four groups to ensure the right fit for every age and stage:
DBT Multi-Family Groups for Adolescents
For teenagers and caregivers learning the full DBT curriculum together, because when families speak the same language, the skills truly stick.
DBT Groups for Children
For children ages 8–10 who are struggling to manage at school and at home, taught in a developmentally appropriate format.
DBT Graduate Group for Adolescents
For teens ages 15–19 who have completed a round of DBT skills group and are ready to deepen their skills, build mastery, and support their peers.
DBT Groups for Parents
For parents who are also struggling with emotional dysregulation, learning the same skills as their child allows them to support progress at home and use the skills themselves.
DBT Group Therapy in Florham Park, NJ
Our DBT Program Includes:
Weekly Individual Therapy
Each participant is matched with a DBT-trained individual therapist who provides one-on-one support, tracks progress, reviews diary cards, and helps your tween, teen, or young adult apply skills to the specific challenges they are navigating in real life.
A Structured DBT Skills Group
The skills group is where the core DBT skills are taught. Groups meet weekly and cover all four DBT skill modules: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness, and, for our multi-family teen groups, Walking the Middle Path.
Tweens and teens attend our multi-family group alongside a caregiver, so families learn the skills together. Young adults attend a separate group without a caregiver, providing developmentally appropriate peer connection and support.
Family Therapy Sessions As Needed
Family sessions are integrated as needed throughout treatment to address patterns, improve communication, and ensure that what is being learned in therapy is being supported and reinforced at home.
Between-Session Coaching
This is one of the things that sets comprehensive DBT apart. Your tween, teen or young adult has access to their individual therapist for between-session phone coaching. This is real-time support in moments of distress to help them apply skills before a crisis escalates, because the hardest moments don’t wait for the next appointment.
DBT Groups in Florham Park, NJ
What Can DBT Groups Help With?
Emotion Dysregulation
Intense, rapidly shifting emotions can feel impossible to manage. DBT gives children and young adults the specific skills to regulate from the inside out.
Anxiety
When overwhelming emotions fuel persistent worry, panic, and avoidance, DBT’s skills-based approach gives individuals the tools to tolerate distress and break the cycle that keeps anxiety in charge.
Depression
When the weight of intense emotions leads to shutdown, withdrawal, and hopelessness, DBT helps young individuals rebuild emotional balance and find their way back to their own lives.
Trauma
For tweens, teens and young adults whose emotional dysregulation is rooted in trauma, DBT provides the stabilization and distress tolerance skills that make deeper trauma processing possible.
Self-Harm & Suicidal Ideation
DBT is the gold-standard evidence-based treatment for self-harm and suicidal behavior in tweens, adolescents and young adults. Our intensively trained clinicians specialize in exactly this.
Impulsivity
Acting before thinking, saying things that can’t be unsaid, and making decisions in moments of distress can be tough. DBT builds a pause between the feeling and the action.
OCD
DBT complements ERP and CBT by building the distress tolerance and emotional regulation skills that make exposure work more sustainable.
Relationship Difficulties
The push-pull, the explosions, and the isolation are hard to gain control of. DBT teaches interpersonal skills that help build and sustain real, healthy relationships.
Parent-Child Conflict
Through our multi-family skills group, parents and their children learn the same skills together, reducing conflict, improving communication, and rebuilding connection at home.
DBT Group Therapy in Florham Park, NJ
What You’ll Learn In Our DBT Groups
Our DBT skills curriculum is taught across four core modules. Every skill is practical, research-based, and designed for real-life use.
The foundation of all DBT skills. Mindfulness teaches participants how to observe and describe their thoughts and feelings in the present moment, without judgment and without reactivity. These skills reduce emotional escalation before it starts, creating the pause that makes everything else possible.
For the moments when emotions hit hard and fast, and the risk of doing something impulsive or harmful is highest. Distress tolerance skills help individuals survive a crisis without making things worse, allowing them to ride the wave without being pulled under.
This module teaches specific, targeted skills to reduce emotional vulnerability, understand what emotions are communicating, and change emotional responses that are causing harm. Participants learn how to address depression, anxiety, anger, and intense mood shifts from the inside out.
Healthy relationships don’t come naturally to everyone, and for people who struggle with emotional intensity, they can feel impossible. This module teaches tweens, teens, and young adults how to ask for what they need, say no effectively, navigate conflict, and maintain self-respect in their relationships with others.
Designed specifically for adolescents and their caregivers, Walking the Middle Path addresses the parent-teen relationship directly. Families learn skills related to validation, behavior change, and dialectical thinking, reducing conflict and building the kind of understanding that makes home feel safer for everyone.
The emotions don’t have to keep winning. And you don’t have to try managing it all on your own.
We offer DBT skills training, support, and a team of expertly trained clinicians specializing in DBT.
Contact us to begin.
Our Approach
How Our DBT Groups Work
Step 1: We Listen Deeply
Build practical skills by identifying unhelpful thought and behavior patterns keeping kids, teens, & adults stuck.
Step 2: We Build a Plan Together
Before entering the skills group, each participant works with a matched individual therapist to identify goals, build motivation, and ensure DBT is the right fit. Every plan is individualized because no two people or families are the same.
Step 3: You Build Skills and See Real Change
From there, the full DBT program begins: Weekly individual sessions, weekly skills group, family therapy as needed, and between-session coaching when the hard moments arrive. Step by step, we help you and your child build the skills to manage what once felt unmanageable.
DBT Group Therapy in Florham Park, NJ
Questions About DBT Group Therapy
Still have questions? Contact Us
What is DBT, and how is it different from regular therapy?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a structured, comprehensive treatment that was specifically developed for people who experience overwhelming emotions. Unlike traditional talk therapy, which focuses on exploring the “why,” DBT is skills-based. It focuses on the “how.” How to manage an emotion in the moment. How to get through a crisis without making it worse. How to ask for what you need without damaging a relationship.
Does my teen need a diagnosis to participate in DBT?
No. A formal diagnosis is not required to benefit from DBT.
While DBT was originally developed for Borderline Personality Disorder, it is now one of the most widely used and rigorously researched treatments for a broad range of presentations: Anxiety, depression, OCD, ADHD, trauma, self-harm, suicidality, and significant emotional dysregulation. What matters most is that the person is struggling with intense emotions and a willingness to learn and practice new skills. We will help you determine whether DBT is the right fit during your initial consultation.
My teen has tried therapy, and it hasn’t helped. Why would DBT be different?
DBT is not general therapy. It is a highly specialized, structured treatment with a specific curriculum, specific skill sets, and a specific delivery model. Many teens who struggle with emotional dysregulation, self-harm, or intense anxiety have tried supportive talk therapy and found it wasn’t enough. That’s often because what they needed was a skills-based approach, one that teaches concrete tools rather than just processing feelings.
At Behavioral Care Center of New Jersey, our clinicians are intensively trained in DBT. This is a core specialty of our practice. If prior therapy hasn’t worked, it may simply be that your teen needed this level of specialization.
What is the difference between the multi-family teen group and the young adult group?
Our multi-family DBT skills group for adolescents is designed for teenagers who attend alongside a caregiver. Learning the skills together is intentional. Research consistently shows that family involvement significantly improves outcomes in adolescent DBT. The group also includes the Walking the Middle Path module, which is specifically designed to reduce parent-teen conflict and improve family communication.
Our young adult group is a separate, caregiver-free group for participants ages 18–22. It provides developmentally appropriate peer connection and support without the family dynamic, which is the right fit for young adults who are building independence and navigating their emotional lives outside the family home.
What is between-session coaching, and how does it work?
Crisis moments don’t wait for the next appointment. Between-session coaching means your teen or young adult has access to their individual DBT therapist by phone or message during moments of acute distress, so they can get real-time support applying their skills before a situation escalates into a crisis.
How long does DBT take?
Standard comprehensive DBT is typically delivered over approximately one year, long enough to complete the full skills curriculum, build genuine skill mastery, and create lasting change.
That said, every individual is different. The timeline of treatment depends on the complexity of presenting concerns, the pace of skill acquisition, and individual goals. We set clear benchmarks from the beginning and review progress regularly with clients and families throughout the process.
What is the DBT Graduate Group, and who is it for?
The DBT Graduate Group is for teenagers ages 15–19 who have already completed a DBT skills group and are ready to continue their work at a deeper level.
In the graduate group, participants practice integrating DBT skills into daily life, share challenges and strategies with peers who have the same skills foundation, and provide DBT consultation to one another. It is a powerful next step for teens who have completed the curriculum and want to build on their progress in a supportive peer community.
Do you offer a DBT group for parents?
Yes. We offer a dedicated DBT skills group for parents of children and teens who are in DBT and struggling with their own emotional dysregulation.
In this group, parents learn the same DBT skills as their child, including mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotion regulation, so they can support their child’s progress at home and use the skills themselves in the moments of parenting that feel most overwhelming. When the whole family speaks the same language, change happens faster.
Can my child be in individual therapy and DBT group at the same time?
Yes, that is exactly how comprehensive DBT is designed to work.
Individual therapy and the DBT skills group are not separate offerings at Behavioral Care Center of New Jersey. They are two components of the same integrated treatment. Your teen or young adult’s individual therapist and their skills group work in coordination, so what is being learned in group is being reinforced, practiced, and applied in individual sessions.
Where can I find a DBT therapist in New Jersey who specializes in teens and self-harm?
DBT is the most effective treatment available for adolescents who engage in self-harm or struggle with suicidal ideation. Finding a practice with genuine DBT specialization matters enormously for this population.
At Behavioral Care Center of New Jersey, all of our DBT clinicians are intensively trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and have decades of experience working with tweens, teens, and young adults. We offer in-person DBT in Florham Park, NJ and virtual options across 44 states.
Still have questions? Contact Us
DBT Group Therapy in Florham Park, NJ
The Shift You May See After DBT Group Therapy
Over time, those who complete our DBT program often experience:
- An improved ability to manage intense emotions with fewer explosions and more manageable days
- A significant reduction in self-harm, suicidal ideation, and impulsive behaviors
- The ability to set healthy boundaries and ask for what they need
- Stronger, more stable relationships with friends and family
- Less conflict at home and more genuine understanding between parent and child
- A sense of hope and confidence in their ability to handle whatever comes next
Behavioral Care Center of New Jersey
How To Get Started
Getting started is simple. You have three ways to connect with us:
Call us
To speak with a member of our team, ask questions, and get matched with the right therapist for you or your child.
Email us
with your questions, concerns, or comments.
Complete the contact form below
and we'll get back to you shortly.
info@behavioralcarenj.com
For driving directions to BCCNJ,
please click the link on the address below: