What is the intake process like for new patients?

We offer a 20-minute complimentary phone consultation to individuals or family members during which we answer any questions you may have, discuss our policies and procedures, our treatment approaches, and our program. If it feels as though The Behavioral Therapy Collective meets your treatment needs, we will set up a 60 minute initial evaluation. We email you intake paperwork to be completed prior to your first appointment. During this appointment, we gather information from you about your symptoms, what brings you into treatment, your personal and family history, your therapy and treatment goals, and then develop a personalized treatment plan.

I’m nervous about coming to therapy. What can I expect it to be like?

We strive to create a comforting, warm atmosphere in our practice. We work hard to ensure we meet the individuals we serve where they’re at in the moment. We see therapy as a collaborative and empowering process and we’re honored to work with individuals to help them realize and reach their goals.

Do you accept insurance?

We are an out-of-network provider, which means you will be reimbursed for sessions by your insurance company if you have out-of-network benefits. We submit electronically on your behalf to your insurance and find that many of our patients receive out-of-network benefits from their insurance companies, with most receiving reimbursement in 1-2 weeks. We have been practicing as out-of-network providers for nearly 10 years, and have found that many patients do have these benefits and can utilize them for therapy. Please call the number on the back of your insurance card for more information.

When you call insurance, you can ask what your OON reimbursement percentage is for the following CPT codes:

90791: Therapy Intake

90834: 45 Minute Individual Session

90837: 60 Minute Individual Session

90853: Adult DBT Skills Group

90849: Adolescent DBT Skills Group

Though there are many reasons why we are not in-network with insurance companies, we do understand it can be frustrating that you cannot use your in-network benefits. If you do not have OON benefits and meet medical necessity for one of the specialty treatments we provide, we can potentially assist you in trying to advocate for a single case agreement. Because we have expertise and advanced training in a number of therapy modalities (DBT, PE, ExRP), and many speciality providers are not in-network, we are often successful in being able to get cases approved when necessary.

We also deeply value your or your loved one’s privacy, and feel that treatment decisions should be made between the patient and their clinician. Unfortunately, many insurance providers ask in-network clinicians to provide significant clinical information and attempt to dictate treatment, while other companies like Headway, Alma, or Betterhelp have histories of selling patient data or engaging in other practices we don’t find ethical.

What groups do you offer?

We offer multi-family adolescent DBT skills groups, advanced adolescent peer DBT groups, adult DBT skills, a summer intensive DBT program for young adults, and are continuously evolving groups to meet the needs of our patients and families. Please see our about page for current group schedules.

Are services virtual?

All groups and individual sessions are virtual. This allows us to see people all over NJ and for those who may travel between a few different states. We have clinicians licensed in: New Jersey, New York, Florida and Ohio.

We have close relationships with schools and providers in Northern NJ, including Ridgewood, Montclair, Chatham, Short Hills, Westfield, Franklin Lakes, Ho-Ho-Kus, and many more. Additionally, we have relationships with schools and providers in Westchester, New York, and New York City. While we do not have a psychiatrist on staff, we collaborate with them weekly and would be more than happy to provide a referral list

How do we set up our first appointment?

Please call us directly at 551-264-1014 and we will return your phone call for an initial consultation. You can also email us at admin@thebtcollective.com, and Liz, Carolyn or Melanie will get back to you as soon as we can. We try to respond to all calls and emails on the day they are received during our typical work hours, Monday-Friday. We are thoughtful and mindful around ensuring that we are the right fit and level of care for you or your family, as the therapeutic relationship and appropriate treatment setting have a significant impact on treatment outcomes.

DBT FAQs:

Will DBT help me?

DBT is an empirically-validated treatment that has been researched for the past 30+ years. Our therapists will complete a thorough evaluation with you to understand the reasons you have entered into treatment, along with your therapeutic and overall goals in life. We have each individual enter pre-treatment after our initial intake, which typically lasts for 4 weeks. We use this time to orient you to the treatment and our program, collaborate and agree on treatment goals, and strengthen commitment before beginning group. Each patient is expected to fill out a daily DBT “diary card,” which is used to track emotions, agreed upon behaviors to increase and decrease, as well as skill utilization and generalization.

New York Times recently wrote a fantastic piece (linked below) which discusses DBT in-depth, and recognizes it as “The Best Tool We Have for Self-Harming and Suicidal Adolescents.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/27/health/dbt-teens-suicide.html

What is the DBT Treatment Hierarchy?

1. Life-threatening behaviors (eg, suicidality, self-injury)

2. Therapy-interfering behaviors

3. Life-interfering behaviors (eg, depression, anger issues, addiction, eating issues, etc).

4. Skills deficits

What are DBT skills?

DBT skills are taught within four modules:

Mindfulness - focused on staying in the present moment, increasing our ability to experience wanted emotions and pleasant events, and to practice acceptance, while decreasing suffering, which is often due to ruminating about the past and worrying about the future.

Distress tolerance - skills for how to get through a crisis situation, or an intense emotional experience, without making things worse. In this module, we will focus on learning how to cope with strong emotions without acting on crisis urges. We will also explore radical acceptance and how addressing reality and practicing willingness decreases suffering.

Emotion regulation - includes emotion psychoeducation and training, how to regulate and change unwanted emotions through cognitive and behavioral methods, how to decrease vulnerabilities that make us more susceptible to unwanted emotions, how to identify our personal values and priorities and avoid avoiding, and how to work toward long-term goals to build the lives we want to lead.

Interpersonal effectiveness/Middle Path - includes skills to decrease conflict in relationships, maintain healthy relationships and boundaries, effectively ask for what we want or need from others, and maintain our self-respect in relationships. Additionally, we work to understand other perspectives through dialectical thinking, we learn how to validate others to strengthen relationships, and we learn how to validate ourselves to increase self-compassion.

What is family skills group?

DBT Skills groups for adolescents includes parental involvement, and each teen in treatment is expected to attend group with their parent each week. This is a great way for parents to be involved in their child’s treatment and to model learning and personal growth as a normative and healthy behavior. We find that having parents come with their child not only increases their own child's commitment to therapy but also improves their relationship. We also provide and encourage family sessions in addition to individual and group treatment.