Читать книгу DBT For Dummies - Gillian Galen - Страница 39

One of the more difficult aspects of working with suicidal patients is that it’s common for therapists to become discouraged and burned out. Dealing with suicidal people every day can make therapists feel much of the despair that their patients feel. Behavioral change can take time, and many therapists worry about their patients’ safety during episodes of emotional distress. The therapist consultation team is intended to be therapy for the therapists, supporting them in their work with patients who have severe, complex, and often difficult-to-treat disorders.

In the same way that individual therapy helps the patient stay motivated for treatment, the consultation team works to ensure that the therapist remains motivated in order to provide the best treatment possible. Teams typically meet weekly for an hour to an hour and a half, and are composed of individual therapists, family therapists, group leaders, and anyone else providing DBT therapy. It’s such an essential component that a therapist can’t say that they are providing DBT therapy if they aren’t on a consultation team. Chapter 17 covers therapist consultation teams in more detail.