Portland DBT is a fantastic program with great therapists. As to the negative reviews: PDBTI is very clear about how the program runs, what the fees and costs are and what is expected of you. I feel that they review these facts on a regular basis. It is not a money grab - as a client you have to do your part or you leave the program. They of course charge if you miss your class - they cannot fill the seat with someone else as you are taking space in the class if you are in attendance or not.The program is not a walk in the park. It takes a lot of hard work and of course the individual therapist and connection will be a major part of the experience. With their help they changed mine and my daughters life in the teen program. I met wonderful supportive parents and my teen made friends and personal connections at a time she needed them most. They have high quality caring professional therapists. I highly recommend making a commitment to treatment here.

DBT is hard work. No one will fix your issues/problems. I found this organization incredibly supportive, thorough, and based in best practices. I did share group time with some other parents who were as desperate as myself to care for and tend to their families...and others who were wanting a magic pill/fix all. This program/organization requires serious commitment.

I have been actively seeking help for my mental health conditions primarily borderline personality disorder and post traumatic stress disorder for 20 years and have come across alot of different well everything. This place is legit, if you are willing to fully commit and hold yourself accountable and responsible for your actions this place and these professionals will help you. Just finished the intake process and did my first session could not be more grateful for the opportunity. Change is extremely difficult and painful at times but even though I am at the very early stages of this program I have a good feeling which is very rare and seldom. Shout out to everyone at Portland DBT for taking time out of youre lives and youre families lives to help myself and everyone else you have helped, are helping, and will help, always appreciated and never taken for granted.

I’m sure DBT has helped some. However, my experience was nothing short of disappointing. DBT is a patronizing and gaslighting form of therapy. They have these ridiculous rules in place

If you have the opportunity to attend this program to enhance your coping skills and to address whatever mental health crisis you are facing, I highly recommend PDBT. I have attended several DBT programs, and the care here is exceptional. The smooth transition to Telehealth during the pandemic has been my life line and every therapist I have met is dedicated and enthusiastic, personable, nonjudgmental and committed. They go the extra mile with 24hr support and individualized plans and attention.

An overpriced disappointment.Wish I could get my time and money back.

Friendly staff who each have work cell phone for calls/texts. Collaborative group sessions. Great one-on-one therapist sessions. Great skills training in dealing with anxiety, depression, and so forth. Very respectful and accepting of individuals religious beliefs, gender identification, personal opinions, and so forth.

Went through their eating disorder program. It wasnt easy, but it was effective in giving me skills to deal with my issues directly instead of starving. Those skills are broadly applicable to life, and are really an effective roadmap for how to be a person. Im grounded in ways I wasnt before, and can deal with things far more effectively in my life. Im now on the list for the main program, because this stuff really helps.

Save your money and time.I tried this place couple of years ago when my child was a teenager and was going through a tough time. After going there twice a week for a couple of months, I realized its just another business and they are into making money not helping people.The parent meetings was a joke. It was good to hear out other parents but not worth what they charge for each session per parent. They make a ton of money from this one hour session with having 10-12 parents in one room, charging each about $65 that insurance will not cover. And you really dont get a lot of direction from the person leading. Yet, I thought it may be worth it, if it works.They pushed me to my limit when when the therapist met with my daughter for only 20 minutes and sent her home for the second week in a row at the beginning. Later on they billed me for 2 full hours. When I questioned it, the therapist denied it and said she always has an hour sessions and would never end a session early.She lied to my face and since it was my word against hers, they made me pay for it. I decided then that they are all about the short cut and making money. We didnt go back after that and they didnt care either.BTW, Their therapy made no difference in our lives. it was just a waste of our time and money.

Portland DBT was a gift. My life and identity has grown tremendously during my therapy and since then. My therapists impacted my life and my loved ones life immeasurably and I hope they know how valued they are. They were flexible and professional. Endless thanks!Its really unfortunate that a few clients had a negative experience with Portland DBT. I do wonder if they followed the rules (incredibly reasonable and flexible rules, btw) of the program...I hope they get the help they need. Rest assured, DBT is a miracle for many many people with varying mental health concerns.

Portland DBT was much heralded as the full fidelity DBT place in town with the best and brightest. Pretty disappointed with the care my loved one received from her individual therapist. The PMHNP was pretty phenomenal though and they do have some extremely well educated and published staff on board. I think my family member got a dud.

Portland DBT Institute is only in it for the money. They could careless if you leave or stay as long as they get there money from your insurance company. They force you into taking phases over again just so they can get more money out of your insurance company. The program was okay I found it to be very childish and is possible great for a preteen who has lived a very very sheltered life and has no common life skills. If the program showed you how to use the skills then it might be a good thing. I was refused to be able to go onto phase 2 they gave me the choice of retaking phase 1 or leaving, again just to get more money. I am still currently a client and have not made my mind up if I will repeat phase 1 or move on with life without any help as this place has made me not trust therapist again. I like the individual therapist and she is doing other type of therapy with me which I feel might be helpful. Other then that this place is a complete joke, your just cattle and they push you through so they can get the most money out of you.The person in charge of the place is so unprofessional that he will not return my calls or set a time to talk with me.I gave this place one stars as there is no such thing as negative stars or I would give it a negative 5 stars. It forced me to give it at least a 1 star.If I could go back 7 months and choose some other place I would. I went to every group session and every individual session and was given a certificate of graduation from phase 1, but again refused to be able to move to phase 2.. During my time in phase 1 I was bounced from one therapist to a different therapist. I believe that my first therapist left for a better job.I will end here as I am getting upset and just repeating myself.

Portland DBT saved my life and my family. I was very reluctant to start with a new therapist and do group therapy, I’ve been in and out for over 20 years. After meeting with my individual therapist I knew right away that he would help me get my life back.I will say that I didn’t care for their group cancelation policy, they require you let them know you can’t be there the day before or you still get charged for the group. As an example, 2 hours before group my son got sick at school and I had to go pick him up, something totally out of my control. With short notice I had no one to watch him and couldn’t make it to group. They still charged me the no show fee which was more than my copay if I had gone to the group.Other then that I had a very positive experience there, my therapist was compassionate and I believe genuinely cared about me as a person. They have a great system for when you’re in crisis. Each therapist carries a company phone that you can call 24/7. They don’t always answer but always called me back within 30 mins. He’d talk me down and make sure I was safe and always followed up the next day.This place changed my life. I was close to dying with my self harming and now because of the guidance, compassion, and skills I received I am almost 2 years self harm free. The longest amount of time since I was 13 years old. I’m 38.All I can say is that, if you’re ready to change your life, ready to commite yourself to learning new life and emotional skills, they can help you in that process.

I’ve been in and out of therapy my whole life this place to this day is the only program that’s ever done anything for me my therapist spent his own paycheck on me willingly to make sure I was doing what I needed to do to get better if DBT isn’t enough for you you might wanna look into an inpatient clinic

People complaining about getting kicked out of the program dont understand how the program works. If you miss 4 consecutive groups or individual therapy sessions, you are so far behind that you have to start over. These are skills classes that you have to be present for and constantly practicing and building off of each week. If you cant stick to the program, it completely makes sense that you would have to start over. You cant miss 4 weeks of calculus classes and expect to jump back in just fine. The irony of people with BPD displacing the blame and playing victim cards. I get it. But they are not in it for the money, and if you cant understand how an intensive skills program would require your consistent attendance, than I dont know what to say.Anyway! This place and this program has been a life saver. I really really love this place and have learned so much. Im grateful for the doctors and therapists here and would do this 100 times over. And Ive yet to finish the program. Best choice I ever made to get into DBT!

Im updating my review from my other account (for confidentiality) from 2 to 5 stars because this place helped me out way more than I expected when I started about a year ago. I think Portland DBT Institute is life changing, and the skills I learned here really helped me manage my day to day life. At first I felt so hopeless, I thought nothing would help me now, since I have been moving around with different kinds of treatment for about 10 years. Now I realize that DBT was the treatment I needed, and Im finally able to function well enough to make choices for myself that help me, and I have improved my communication skills and interpersonal relationships, even ones I thought I had completely burned bridges with.When you start, like me, and maybe even many of the other commenters here, you might also feel like this place isnt helping you at all. It might feel like they arent catering to your needs, but in reality, the only way to see an improvement in your life during your treatment here is to really put in your best effort into practicing and working on the skills they teach you.Commenting on some of the other comments here, from my perspective and experience, the reason treatment here can seem life consuming is because a lot of time and effort has to be spent changing unhealthy coping habits. I grew up developing a lot of unhealthy coping habits, so naturally relearning healthy ones will take a lot of time and effort, especially when applied to day to day life. As someone who has struggled with mental health issues for years, it takes a lot of strength to admit that if you want to see change in your life, then you have to be accountable for that and take responsibility and ownership. Your environment isnt going to change for you, so here youll learn how to either cope in a healthy manner or youll learn how to skillfully remove yourself from the environment without necessarily running away from problems. So for people disregarding it as a waste of time, I want to say, from the perspective of someone who stuck through the program even changing both my group and individual once (my last individual did make sessions short, but my new one is better with time; they are pretty flexible about changing if you arent comfortable with your individual or group, but most of the team that I know of are all very kind and open minded), it really is a huge effort on your part to change, and you cant expect to walk in and have people fix the problem for you. The best metaphor I can think of is if you scrape your knee, they arent going to apply astringent and a band-aid for you, but they will give you the astringent and band-aid for you to apply on your own. Unless you are presented with a therapist who actively discriminated against your identity, which I have yet to hear of personally, its very hard for me to believe that therapists are to blame for not getting well.The only thing I do agree with is that the insurance policies are a pain in the ass, I was very lucky to have insurance that worked well, but even then I remember starting up was kind of annoying in that regard. Also, I think if I remember correctly, in regards to not being able to be in two different kinds of therapies at the same time, I think I heard something about insurance clashing or not being able to pay for both depending on both of the treatments. I wasnt allowed to be in IOP with CBT skills (which I was also admitted into temporarily last year) and DBT at the same time, but Im currently getting ADHD treatment elsewhere and they did allow that. I think if the treatment is similar enough insurance wont allow it.I know I might have made it kind of scary, but it really is worth all the hard work. The work might have been painfully difficult at times and I may still make mistakes now, but the effort was so worth it being able to not feel as much pain and anguish as I did before I started. My previous 2 star review was from 9 mo ago, change isnt going to be quick but it can happen. Best wishes to anyone who also decides to start here.

They kicked me out when I needed them most. They didnt take my severe chronic illness into account. They dont care about physically disabled people. This was several months ago and now Im on the verge of killing myself again. My physical condition is getting worse and worse and my mental health continues to spiral downward. They take your money and dont care about you at all. I hate Portland DBT.

I have been going here for a few years. At first, i thought they just wanted my money, but that was because i was still in my addiction and couldnt think clearly enough to understand how the program really worked. Now that i have been through both phase groups, i can honestly say i would never have made it to the stable state i currently maintain without them. It took time, and i like how they dont try to get rid of you, they just let you go if you want or stay if youre ready to commit to trying to get healthy-- they are nice professionals who know quite a lot about what living with mental illness is like, if you give them the chance to help you. Thanks to them, i seriously now have a chance at a plesant life.

DBT has changed our lives. If you want a bag full of skills, this is the place for you!

Predatory policies, cult-ish practices.Predatory policies- Patients in group therapy are expected to pay a $30 dollar cancellation fee, regardless of their situation or how far in advance they cancel. When I asked the woman I was speaking with during my intake appointment I asked who this policy served, and why it was the way it was. She wouldnt look me in the eyes as she mumbled something.Cult-ish practices- I was informed that when I got through the waitlist and into one on one care I would be required to stop seeing my other therapist. Huh? Why? Again, no clear answers. They just didnt want anyone else involved was the best I could get.During my intake appointment there was also a lot of talk about being part of the program being a lifestyle, and how much devotion to the program would be required on my part. I dislike Kool-Aide so I left.Portland DBT makes it clear, reading their policies alone, that theyre mostly here to milk the mentally ill. There was no room for compassion or understanding, and they put the onus on the patient to prove themselves worth care. Its an unhealthy attitude that encourages mental illness rather than cures it. (You can scroll down and read Arleens review as evidence of that.) The attitude that you have to prove yourself worth treatment is disgusting.I walked away, and would never recommend a friend, loved one, or heck even enemy put themselves in their care.

A loved one was being treated for BPD, and as the program progressed they started manifesting multiple comorbid Cluster B traits, to the point where I felt my child & myself were in danger, and had to cut ties with them. DBT Institute did the exact opposite of what they claim to accomplish.

I completed the standard DBT program and Trauma Recovery program and am now in recovery from borderline personality disorder. The therapists vary in their level of DBT knowledge and skill, but the rigorous attention to program adherance to the evidence-based standards set forth by Dr. Marsha Linehan and colleagues is unique compared to other local DBT programs, which are mostly adapted versions of standard DBT.About DBT:Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), a specialized form of cognitive-behavioral therapy that emphasizes radical acceptance, mindfulness, compassion, a patient-centered values was originally designed to treat chronically suicidal persons, particularly those who have borderline personality disorder (BPD). The comprehensive treatment includes weekly individual therapy sessions, weekly therapist team consultation meetings, on-call therapist skills coaching, and weekly group skills training that is comprised four distinct training modules: cover mindfulness skills, interpersonal effectiveness skills, emotion regulation skills, and distress tolerance skills.Rachel Gill B.Sc.PSS,Former Portland DBT Institute ClientIndependent Clinical Researcher

High therapist turnover and my last therapist, Dan was the worst I’ve had in my 30+ years of therapy. Worst was when I requested to transfer therapists they were requiring me to continue to work with him.

I have had the same problem as Jennifer did ai got kicked out because of my medical conditions and that ai was going to go through some major surgery. So then I ended up with serious problems after my first surgery and spent 2 months in the hospital and Nursing homes. I almost died from an infection had toxic shock and had to have blood transfussions. I am home now but have home health coming out during the week. But my depression and suicide thoughts are coming back. I dont understand a place that turns there back on you when you need the mental health even more due to medical problems but you have no one to help you. Why cant physical health and mental health able to care for.someone at the same time. I to feel that money is the most important thing to Portland DBT it is a very cold place. No where to turn

Dbt was the most positive experience Ive had in my life