DBT Next Steps (formerly DBT-ACES) is an adjunctive treatment to Standard DBT designed to increase self-sufficiency. It is for those who have graduated from comprehensive DBT and are ready to live their skills more fully.
This phase moves beyond stabilization and focuses on integration, bringing mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness into daily life with greater confidence and flexibility.
Rather than simply knowing the skills, participants practice embodying them. DBT Next Steps supports continued growth by navigating complex emotions, deepening relational effectiveness, and aligning behaviors with long-term values.
This curriculum focuses on moving from surviving to thriving, deepening mindfulness, strengthening emotional steadiness, building courageous relationships, and responding to life with clarity, flexibility, and intention. The aim is to strengthen mastery, sustain progress, and build a life that feels not just manageable, but meaningful.
Growth is not linear. Mastery is not perfection.
If you have a client who has graduated from comprehensive DBT and is looking to continue strengthening all that they have learned, DBT Next Steps Group offers a way to support continued growth.
Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT) is an evidence-based treatment developed by Dr. Tom Lynch and colleagues, designed for people who struggle with too much self-control and have difficulty with flexibility and being too rigid.
Self-control is usually seen as a strength. But when it becomes rigid perfectionism, emotional inhibition, or social withdrawal, it can lead to loneliness and chronic distress.
Overcontrol is often linked to conditions such as anorexia, obsessive-compulsive personality traits, chronic depression, anxiety disorders, and autism spectrum presentations.
RO-DBT helps people loosen rigid patterns, build authentic connection, and live with greater flexibility. Rather than focusing only on emotion regulation, RO-DBT targets social connection as the key pathway to healing.
Research shows that individuals who are highly overcontrolled often experience heightened threat sensitivity, making it harder to feel safe and connected with others.
RO-DBT teaches: flexible emotional expression, social signaling skills (both verbal and non-verbal), strategies that activate the brain’s social-safety system, and radical openness—the willingness to learn from feedback and step into the unknown.
The goal isn’t less self-control. It’s balanced self-control—so you can stay grounded while also feeling connected, open, and engaged in your life.
DBT Prolonged Exposure (DBT-PE) is an evidence-based treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Developed by Dr. Melanie Harned, it integrates standard Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) with Prolonged Exposure therapy to safely process traumatic memories.
DBT-PE helps clients confront trauma memories in a structured, supported way, reducing fear, shame, and emotional reactivity. This allows you to take back control of your life.
Clients first acquire and generalize DBT coping skills. Once stability is established, trauma processing begins within the DBT framework.
DBT-PE is especially helpful for individuals who:
The goal of DBT-PE is not only to reduce PTSD symptoms, but to help individuals reclaim their lives—moving from surviving trauma to fully living beyond it.
If you are currently participating in Comprehensive DBT and are interested in trauma-focused work, DBT-PE may be an appropriate next step.
