CBT California

The new DBT Bulletin is here! Check out the current issue at the link in our bio for amazing articles on treating adolescents, understanding B**M, teaching dialectics more effectively, and so much more! Thank you to our fantastic contributors, editorial board, and art director 👏🏻

⭐️ Meet our team! ⭐️

Rosa Hernandez-Ramos is a psychology extern at CBT/DBT California. She is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at UC Irvine’s Psychological Science Department and has experience providing DBT to adolescents at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). Rosa’s research focuses on scaling access to evidence-based treatments for marginalized Latinx populations using nontraditional service delivery methods. She provides CBT, DBT, and other evidence-based interventions to adolescents and adults online and in our Newport Beach office.

Want to increase your tolerance for emotions and difficult urges? Try riding the wave!

Painful emotions and their urges come and go like waves in the ocean. We can get swept up in them, or we can learn to surf 🏄🏻‍♂️

Riding the wave, also known as mindfulness of current emotions, teaches us to experience emotion without acting on it or trying to change it. Riding the wave involves these steps:

1. Observe your emotion without trying to hold onto it or pushing it away
2. Pay attention to body sensations. Do you notice the emotion in your body? If so, where?
3. Remember, you are not your emotion!
4. Accept your emotion without judgment

⭐️ Meet our team! ⭐️

Dr. Brittany Drake is a postdoctoral fellow at CBT/DBT California. She possesses a wide range of expertise in evidence-based treatment modalities, specializing in the treatment of anxiety disorders, insomnia, emotion dysregulation, chronic depression, and PTSD. Dr. Drake's research examines how interpersonal interactions can impact emotional expression and can be leveraged to change the way people think about and cope with significant challenges, including chronic illness or loss. She sees adolescents and adults virtually and at the Beverly Hills and Torrance offices.

Anyone have a case of the “I don’t wannas”??

When you’re feeling stuck, stubborn, or avoidant, willing hands can be a helpful skill to try.

As a DBT distress tolerance skill, willing hands can help us shift from WILLFUL to WILLING. Making a slight shift with our body posture is often a starting place for additional skill use.

FYI, it’s normal to feel vulnerable when using this skill! Start small by opening one palm at a time or use a different willingness skill, such as half smile 😊

⭐️Meet our team!⭐️

Dustin Miller is an associate clinical social worker and has served as a staff CBT and DBT therapist at CBTC since 2021. Dustin’s clinical interests include CBT and exposure therapies for OCD and anxiety-spectrum disorders as well as DBT to improve our relationship to emotions and to help us create a valued life. Dustin’s research interests include evolutionary psychology and the integration of nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle to increase wellbeing. He provides virtual therapy services in English and Spanish.

⭐️Meet our team!⭐️

Dustin Miller is an associate clinical social worker and has served as a staff CBT and DBT therapist at CBTC since 2021. Dustin’s clinical interests include CBT and exposure therapies for OCD and anxiety-spectrum disorders as well as DBT to improve our relationship to emotions and to help us create a valued life. Dustin’s research interests include evolutionary psychology and the integration of nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle to increase wellbeing. He provides virtual therapy services to California residents.

Happy Friday from our Beverly Hills office 🤩

Did you know we have three office locations? You can meet with our therapists in Beverly Hills, Torrance, or Newport Beach. We also provide online therapy to California residents.

Research supports that CBT and DBT can be effectively delivered via telehealth. That being said, sometimes there’s nothing like seeing your therapist face to face 🤍

⭐️ Meet our team! ⭐️

Ivy Levin is a licensed clinical social worker and Director of External Training at CBT/DBT California. She is intensively trained in comprehensive DBT, CBT and ERP and is certified in other evidence-based psychotherapies including Prolonged Exposure (PE) for PTSD and Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression (IPT). Prior to joining our team, Ivy served as a Clinical Supervisor, Project Lead, and the countywide CBT and DBT Practice Lead for the LA County Department of Mental Health. She sees clients in Torrance and online.

New blog!

Curious about how CBT can help you sleep? We provide an overview of CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I), a brief, structured treatment that has been shown to reduce insomnia symptoms and improve sleep quality 😴

Click the link in our bio to read the post or contact us to learn more!

⭐️ Meet our team! ⭐️

Wendy Morgan, LMFT is the Director of Skills Training at CBT/DBT California. She pursued her passion of becoming a clinician and researcher after a long career in marketing and public relations. Wendy is certified in evidence-based treatments by the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies and the Yale University Happiness Lab, in addition to being intensively trained in DBT. Wendy specializes in DBT, CBT, and other evidence-based treatments for adults and is involved in our adult DBT program. She also has expertise in training clinicians and students in CBT and DBT within and outside of CBT/DBT California. She sees clients in person and online.

⭐️ Meet our team! ⭐️

Dr. King is a licensed clinical psychologist and Assistant Director of Research at CBT/DBT California. Dr. King worked as a research assistant under Dr. Marsha Linehan, DBT’s treatment developer, before joining the Rutger’s DBT-RU lab under the mentorship of Dr. Shireen Rizvi. In addition to her training and experience in DBT research and clinical work, she is certified in CBT by the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies and provides a range of evidence-based treatments to adult and adolescent clients. Dr. King is involved in our adult and adolescent DBT programs. She sees clients in Beverly Hills, Torrance, and online.

Lovingkindness is a mindfulness exercise in which we send kind thoughts or well wishes to ourselves or others. Repeated practice can help us increase positive emotions and compassion toward self and others. Pretty cool, right?!

To give it a try, imagine sending the following kindnesses toward yourself or another person:

🩷 May you be happy
🩷 May you be healthy
🩷 May you be at peace

The words you use are totally customizable, so play around and find phrases that feel right to you. To learn more, check out and her work. Give it a try? Let us know how it went in the comments ⬇️

⭐️ Meet our team! ⭐️

Dr. Warren is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Director of Operations at CBT/DBT California. She is certified in CBT by the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies and extensively trained in DBT, ACT, CPT, and prolonged exposure (PE) for PTSD, among other evidence based therapies. Dr. Warren is involved in our adult DBT program and currently facilitates our DBT family group, which provides DBT skills training to parents and caregivers of teens and adults with BPD and other forms of emotion dysregulation. Dr. Warren sees clients virtually.

It’s the last week of Pride Month! Check out our website to read our latest blog, written by Assistant Director of Research, Dr. Alex King, and reflect on the dialectics inherent in our observation of Pride 🌈

What does Pride mean to you?

🌈

Did you know that June is PTSD awareness month?

PTSD and other trauma disorders make it hard to function. Symptoms may include:
▪️Flashbacks
▪️Nightmares about the trauma(s) and disrupted sleep
▪️Efforts to avoid places, people, and things that remind you of what happened
▪️Altered beliefs (“people can’t be trusted”)
▪️Changes in mood
▪️Engagement in self-destructive behaviors

The good news? Trauma survivors are not alone and treatment works. Interested in learning more about trauma treatments we offer? Click the link in our bio 🧡

⭐️ Meet our team! ⭐️

Dr. McFarr is the Founder and Executive Director of CBT California/DBT California. She is an international expert in CBT, DBT, CBASP, and other evidence based therapies. In addition to founding CBT/DBT California in 2008, Dr. McFarr served for over 20 years as a Professor at UCLA and in leadership roles at Harbor UCLA Medical Center, developed and initiated the LA County roll outs of CBT and DBT, is a past President of the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy (ABCT), and is the current President of the International Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (IACBT), among other accomplishments.

This week’s skill is ✨Radical Acceptance✨

~ To radically accept = accepting the present moment and situation for what it is. Instead of refusing, giving up on, or approving of these conditions, you have to accept it before you can change your reality.

~ While this skill may not always feel easy to do (since sometimes our natural response is to push acceptance away), practice really does makes perfect!

💭 What are some situations where you can practice using radical acceptance? 💭

This week’s skill is CHECK THE FACTS!

Check the facts is a DBT emotion regulation skill that helps us increase clarity about emotional situations. Have you ever noticed that assumptions and judgments about events intensify your emotional response? Checking the facts helps us avoid treating assumptions and judgments as truths, which can regulate emotions and lay the groundwork for additional skill use.

Swipe through ➡️ to learn how to use this skill.

Want to learn more about DBT and how we can help? Click the link in our bio!

The Cognitive Behavioral Society of Southern California in conjunction with CBT California is proud to present Scientific Sessions 10th Annual Meeting!

Join us on Thursday 22nd June at 9.00am for the 10th annual update on mental health research in Southern California. Research on evidence-based therapies and their implementation in real-world settings will be presented in poster form lightning round.

Registration is free and anyone is welcome!

Please register using this link: https://bit.ly/CBTSCC23

Registration closes Monday 12th June 2023.