Therapy for the Therapist:
Building DBT as a Treatment Sustained Together,
Not Carried Alone
Book Description
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was originally developed as a structured treatment model for high-risk clients. From the beginning, DBT has included the treatment team and consultation structure as essential components for maintaining both treatment effectiveness and clinical safety. As an evidence-based treatment, DBT has continued to evolve through research and clinical practice, particularly for clients who are often considered difficult to treat, including individuals with borderline personality disorder and chronic suicidal crises.
As DBT has expanded across clinical settings, therapists have increasingly been asked to manage multiple roles at once, including individual therapy, skills training, phone coaching, and participation in consultation team meetings. In these demanding clinical environments, therapists must carry significant clinical responsibility and emotional burden while also maintaining treatment quality and preventing burnout.
This translated version of the DBT Teams Development and Practice examines how DBT treatment can be sustained through effective team structures and a strong consultation culture. Rather than placing the entire burden on the therapist’s personal dedication or individual competence, the book emphasizes how the structures and relationships surrounding therapists directly affect the quality, consistency, and sustainability of treatment. It highlights the role and function of the DBT consultation team and shows that DBT is fundamentally a collaborative practice, not an isolated therapeutic effort.
This volume is the third title in the Guilford DBT Practice Series and was developed in response to the need among DBT practitioners for more refined and clinically competent implementation while remaining faithful to standard DBT protocol. Within the integrated DBT treatment model—including individual therapy, skills training, phone coaching, and consultation teams—the book focuses on the consultation team as a central structure that sustains the treatment. Rather than replacing the original DBT manuals, the series expands and supports real-world clinical implementation.
The authors describe how effective DBT teams are structured and maintained, and how therapists can experience support and validation within consultation teams while refining their clinical judgment and treatment strategies. The DBT team is presented as a professional community in which therapists remain connected to one another, review difficult clinical situations together, and continue strengthening their treatment skills through learning, rehearsal, role-play, and practical demonstration.
Through structured team meetings and consultation processes, the book offers practical guidance for reducing therapist burnout and supporting more effective treatment outcomes. Rather than presenting the consultation team merely as a formal procedure or organizational requirement, the book frames it as a form of “therapy for the therapist”—a structure that helps therapists continue practicing DBT without becoming isolated in their clinical work.
Grounded in the core DBT assumption that therapist stability and sustainability are directly connected to treatment quality, DBT Teams Development and Practice provides practical standards and guidance that can be applied in real clinical settings. Throughout the book is the belief that when therapists can sustain the work without being overwhelmed by exhaustion, more individuals and families can receive stable, high-quality DBT treatment.
About the Authors
About the Translators
Songhee Chae, M.A
Songhee Chae graduated from the Department of Psychology at Ewha Womans University and received her master’s degree in psychology from the same institution.
She completed clinical training through a collaborative program between The Tree Group / DBT Center of Korea and Evidence Based Treatment Centers of Seattle (EBTCS) in Seattle, United States. In 2008, she completed the official DBT Intensive Training program conducted by Behavioral Tech.
Since 2007, she has provided treatment based on the standard Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program. Her clinical work has focused on treatment and consultation for clients and families experiencing chronic and complex difficulties, including emotion dysregulation, self-destructive behaviors, emotional and behavioral problems, and autism spectrum disorder.
Drawing on this clinical experience, she has also continued to participate in the translation of books related to DBT and Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE).
In 2008, she served as Operations Director for a workshop featuring Marsha M. Linehan. As Vice President of the DBT Institute of Korea, which was founded in accordance with Dr. Linehan’s educational philosophy of DBT, she has overseen the 2023–2024 DBT Intensive Training programs and various educational initiatives, dedicating her work to the dissemination of DBT education in Korea.
Yong Cho, PhD
Yong Cho, PhD, is a psychologist licensed in New York State and the founder and president of The Tree Group and the DBT Institute of Korea. After graduating from the University of Utah, he earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from The New School for Social Research.
He began his clinical training at Beth Israel Medical Center in 1997. In 1998, he continued formal psychotherapy and DBT clinical training at Zucker Hillside Hospital / Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York. He completed an APA-accredited internship program at the same hospital.
Beginning in the early 2000s, he became one of the first clinicians to apply DBT with Korean and Asian clients experiencing emotion dysregulation, borderline personality disorder, and Hwa-Byung symptoms. He also established the Asian American Family Clinic within the hospital system, where he provided psychotherapy for clients from diverse cultural backgrounds. His work was featured in The New York Times and other media outlets.
In 2003, he founded The Tree Group in Korea, where he has provided evidence-based psychotherapy programs including DBT, Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE), and behavior therapy. In 2007, through collaboration with Marsha M. Linehan and DBT specialists in Seattle, he established the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Center of Korea under The Tree Group. In 2008, he invited Dr. Linehan to Korea and organized a DBT professional workshop.
In 2023, he founded the DBT Institute of Korea, a professional training institute dedicated to the ethical dissemination and implementation of DBT. During 2023–2024, he collaborated with Behavioral Tech to organize the official DBT Intensive Training program in Korea. He currently provides DBT treatment and education for Korean- and English-speaking adults, adolescents, parents, and families as both a clinician and educator.
