In Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) a community of therapists treat a community of clients and so the Therapists’ Consult Group is at the heart of your DBT program; if you do not attend a regular consult group you are not doing DBT. However, you may have to be creative about how and where your group meets, for example using video-conferencing, or alternating venues.
There are many challenges to meeting all five functions if your setting varies from the standard out-patient service. You may have to change the methods by which some of the functions are met, but you must be able to identify how they are each being delivered.
If you are in a specialist area it may be helpful to confer with more established DBT teams in your specific field, for example in acute in-patient or forensic settings.
Download the diagram if you wish to see the relationship between the 5 components of a comprehensive DBT service.