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Skills and behavioural treatment for urges and relapse patterns

DBT for Addiction Recovery

DBT-informed addiction recovery applies mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, behavioural analysis, and relationship skills to substance-use urges, relapse chains, shame, avoidance, and building a sustainable recovery life.

You don’t need to choose a program before contacting us. Intake does not commit you to treatment.

Your care at a glance

  • Urge and relapse-chain analysis
  • Crisis-survival and craving-management skills
  • Emotion and relationship work
  • Recovery routines and life-worth-living goals
Fit and safety

Could this support fit your needs?

This service may be right for you if…

  • Substance use is linked to intense emotion, conflict, trauma cues, impulsive action, or difficulty tolerating urges
  • You want a practical skills system alongside recovery goals
  • You are willing to examine relapse chains without turning them into moral failure
  • Outpatient psychotherapy is clinically appropriate

A different pathway may be safer or more useful when…

  • Medical detoxification, withdrawal management, or urgent physical-health care is required
  • Imminent overdose, severe intoxication, psychosis, mania, or suicide risk requires emergency response
  • Residential, inpatient, opioid-agonist, or another specialized addiction pathway is indicated
Program structure

DBT targets both abstinence and the conditions that make relapse more likely

The exact goals depend on the client, substance, risk, medical advice, and treatment setting.

Commitment and goals

Clarify abstinence, reduction, safety, medication, recovery supports, and what the client is committing to now.

Vulnerability reduction

Address sleep, food, illness, stress, loneliness, conflict, access, cues, and other factors that increase risk.

Urge-management skills

Practise observing urges, delaying action, changing environment, contacting support, and surviving the peak.

Emotion regulation

Reduce the need to use substances as the only available method for changing internal states.

Interpersonal effectiveness

Work with boundaries, asking for help, high-risk relationships, repair, and recovery-supportive connection.

Relapse response

Return quickly to safety, analysis, learning, and recommitment rather than using shame as a reason to continue.
Clinical rationale

A lapse contains information about the chain

Shame often collapses a lapse into “I failed.” DBT instead analyses vulnerabilities, cues, thoughts, emotions, body states, urges, access, relationships, and consequences. The purpose is accountability with enough precision to create a different next link.

Analyse the chain

Map the sequence leading to use or another addictive behaviour and identify points for intervention.

Survive urges

Use crisis-survival, stimulus control, delay, acceptance, and support before the urge becomes action.

Build replacement behaviour

Develop routines, reinforcement, relationships, and meaningful activities that make recovery more sustainable.
Between-session and practical support

DBT may be one part of a larger addiction-treatment plan

Depending on the substance and severity, effective care may also require a physician, addiction medicine, medication, withdrawal management, peer recovery, residential treatment, laboratory monitoring, or harm-reduction services.

Medical needs

Withdrawal, overdose risk, medication, pregnancy, liver or cardiac concerns, and other physical-health issues need medical assessment.

Addiction-specific services

Some clients need specialized outpatient, residential, or opioid-agonist care in addition to psychotherapy.

DBT contribution

Skills, chain analysis, emotion regulation, relationships, commitment, and life-building remain valuable parts of recovery.
Fees and access

Fees and practical details

Fees depend on the recommended individual or group pathway. Coverage must be confirmed for the assigned clinician and service format. This service does not replace emergency care or medically supervised withdrawal management when those are required.

YOUR QUESTIONS

Questions you may have

Goals are clarified individually. Some situations require abstinence or medical stabilization; others may begin with harm reduction and commitment work.

No. DBT addresses behavioural and emotional patterns but does not replace detoxification, prescribing, physical-health care, or specialized addiction treatment.

Safety comes first, followed by a detailed chain analysis, repair of consequences, and a revised plan. Shame is not used as the treatment strategy.

It can address the chain and build coping. Trauma-focused treatment may be considered later when stability and readiness are sufficient.

With consent and when useful, supports can be included in planning, boundaries, communication, and relapse prevention.

Related pathways

You may also be interested in…

DBT Individual Therapy

Use personalized weekly behavioural treatment for urges, relationships, and recovery targets.

DBT Skills Training

Build mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

DBT-PE for PTSD

Consider trauma-focused work after sufficient recovery stability and readiness.

You can work out the next step with us.

Tell us what has been difficult and what you hope to change. A clinician reviews your needs and explains the recommended support, practical arrangements, and next steps.

No referral is needed to contact the clinic. Your funding provider may have separate referral or authorization requirements.