Faculty

New Hyde Park, NY

Adam Payne, PhD, is a DBT – Linehan Board of Certification, Certified DBT Clinician. Dr. Payne received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1996. Dr. Payne served as the conference chairperson for the 2012 and 2013 conferences of the International Society for the Improvement and Teaching of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (ISITDBT). ISITDBT is a volunteer organization with the sole task of organizing an annual conference to bring together DBT clinicians from around the US and around the globe. Dr. Payne served ten years as a Clinical Supervisor at the University of Washington for graduate students in clinical psychology at the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics (BRTC). He has provided training and consultation in Dialectical Behavior Therapy internationally for Behavioral Tech, LLC since 2002. Dr. Payne is a founding member of the Center for Cognitive and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (CCDBT). Founded in 2006, the CCDBT aims to provide effective, evidence-based, psychotherapeutic treatments for children, adolescents, and adults. The main office of this center is in Lake Success, NY on Long Island. The cornerstones of the CCDBT are programs in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for both adults and for adolescents. Prior to the formation of the CCDBT, Dr. Payne served as the Clinical Coordinator of the Adolescent DBT Program at Schneider Children’s Hospital. Beginning in 1999, the team developed a comprehensive Adolescent DBT program at Schneider Children’s Hospital, part of the North Shore – Long Island Jewish Health System. More locally, Dr. Payne has been an invited speaker to school districts and mental health settings to present information about the application of DBT to adolescent populations. Dr. Payne also previously served as the staff psychologist of the Adolescent Treatment Team of the Child and Adolescent Day Hospital at Zucker Hillside Hospital. Prior to the formation of the CCDBT, Dr. Payne also maintained a faculty practice for treatment of children, adolescents, and adults within Zucker Hillside Hospital on Long Island.

Burnaby BC Canada

Alexander L. Chapman, PhD, R.Psych, Professor and Clinical Science Area Coordinator in the Department of Psychology at Simon Fraser University (SFU), is a Registered Psychologist and the President of the DBT Centre of Vancouver. Dr. Chapman received his B.A. (1996) from the University of British Columbia and his M.S. (2000) and Ph.D. (2003) in clinical psychology from Idaho State University, following an internship at Duke University Medical Center. He completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Marsha Linehan (founder of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy) at the University of Washington. Dr. Chapman directs the Personality and Emotion Research Laboratory at SFU, where he studies the role of emotion regulation in BPD, self-harm, impulsivity, and other behavioral problems. He has published numerous scientific articles and chapters on these and other topics and has given many scientific conference presentations on his research. He is a PI on two large Canadian Institute of Health Research funded grants for multi-site studies, one of which investigates the effects of an abbreviated (6 month) versus a standard (12 month) course of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. Dr. Chapman also is on the editorial board for Personality Disorder: Theory, Research & Treatment, and Journal of Personality Disorders, and Behavior Therapy, where he was designated Distinguished Reviewer for his contributions. Dr. Chapman is a Fellow of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and the Canadian Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies (CACBT). He also serves on the Credentialing Committee of the CACBT. Dr. Chapman is a DBT Trainer and Consultant with Behavioral Tech, LLC. He was board certified in DBT in the first cohort of certified clinicians by the Linehan Board of Certification and also is board certified in CBT by the Canadian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies. Dr. Chapman regularly gives local, national, and international workshops and invited talks on DBT and the treatment of BPD, has consulted with and trained clinicians in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K., and trains and supervises clinical psychology students. He has received the Young Investigator’s Award of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (2007), the Canadian Psychological Association’s (CPA) Early Career Scientist Practitioner Award (2011), and an 8-year Career Investigator Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. He has written/coauthored 10 books. Three of his self-help books have won the ABCT Self-Help Book Seal of Merit Award. In addition, Dr. Chapman has a black belt and is an assistant martial arts instructor. He also has been practicing zen and mindfulness for several years. Dr. Chapman enjoys cooking, hiking, skiing, and spending time with his wonderful wife and two young sons.

Portland, OR

Amy W. Wagner, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist in Washington state and Oregon, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University. She has over 25 years of experience as a therapist, supervisor/teacher and researcher, with expertise in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, evidence-based treatments for PTSD including Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure, and cognitive-behavior therapy in general. She has supervised graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and established professionals throughout her career and has taught numerous professional workshops (primarily related to DBT), nationally and internationally. Her research has focused on treatment development and evaluation, most recently evaluating an adaptation of behavioral activation therapy for PTSD, and she has numerous research publications.

Durham, NC

Andrada D. Neacsiu, PhD, has completed her doctoral degree (with distinction) in Clinical Psychology at the University of Washington under the mentorship of Dr. Linehan and did her internship training in behavioral medicine at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. She completed a postdoc at Duke University Medical Center under the mentorship of Dr. Rosenthal. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the department of Psychiatry at Duke. Her research focuses on neuroscience informed treatment development for emotion dysregulation, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and borderline personality disorder (BPD). Clinically, Dr. Neacsiu specializes in cases that are complex and difficult to treat, such as cases where there are multiple comorbidities, cases combining psychological and medical problems, and BPD cases.

New York, NY

André Ivanoff, Ph.D., is a recently retired Professor at Columbia University in the City of New York where she directed the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Training Program & Lab and taught in the School of Social Work. Since 2011 she has served as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Linehan Institute, now known as Behavioral Tech Institute. The Institute’s mission is the dissemination and implementation of DBT via training mental health professionals.  She is also the President of Behavioral Tech, the training company founded by Marsha Linehan. Additionally, she serves on the Boards of the DBT- Linehan Board of Certification and the World DBT Association (WDBT-A). Her specific regional affiliates include Israel and the Middle East North Africa (MENA) countries She is former Chair of the Columbia University Social & Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board. Her research and clinical interests include the international implementation of DBT in new geographies & cultures, the training of DBT in academic and post-graduate settings across mental health disciplines, and the application of DBT to the problems of those involved in the criminal justice system. She has authored over 90 publications on suicidal behaviors, DBT, and behavior change methods, and trains internationally and nationally with outpatient, inpatient, and correctional/forensic systems implementing DBT. She and her husband Philip Kahn reside in New York City where their two sons also live.

San Diego, CA

Anne Cusack, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and a DBT- Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician™ who works with the UC San Diego Health College Mental Health Program, which provides specialty mental health services to the UC San Diego community. She specializes in providing comprehensive DBT and evidence-based treatment to individuals with suicidal ideation, self-harm, emotion dysregulation, trauma, borderline personality disorder, eating disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder. She has expertise in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), DBT-prolonged exposure (DBT-PE), exposure and response prevention (EX/RP), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Dr. Cusack is experienced in providing individual, group, couples, and family therapy, as well as specific coaching related to eating concerns or crisis intervention. Her approach to care is to help her clients build a life worth living by building a genuine relationship, changing specific target behaviors and working collaboratively. Prior to joining the College Mental Health Program, she was the co-director of the adult program at the UC San Diego Eating Disorders Center. In addition to her clinical expertise, Dr. Cusack has held various leadership positions within UC San Diego, which included managing the staffing of incoming patients, group and staff scheduling, creating policies and procedures related to clinical care, and leading the interdisciplinary treatment team. She also has a background in supervising and training graduate students, post-masters clinicians, and postdoctoral fellows. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at UC San Diego Health Eating Disorders Center for Treatment and Research and an APA-accredited predoctoral internship at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital. Dr. Cusack received her PsyD from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and completed a two-year DBT practicum at University of Chicago. Outside of work, Dr. Cusack enjoys spending time with her pup, visiting her hometown of Chicago, spending time with loved ones, hiking, traveling, playing board games and reading novels.

Washington

Ashley Connors, MSW, LICSW is a Consulting and Training Specialist with Behavioral Tech Institute and maintains a private practice in Washington State. Ashley graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences, majoring in Child and Family Development. She began her career as a coordinator of national volunteer chapters before returning to school for her Masters. Ashley graduated with a Masters in Social Work from Kennesaw State University, with concentration in clinical social work practice. It was during her graduate practicum at a treatment center for children and adolescents that she learned about Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Upon completion of graduate school, Ashley relocated to Seattle, Washington to begin her counseling career and continue training in DBT. Ashley worked as staff therapist at the Eating Recovery Center of Washington and the DBT and Anxiety Centers at Evidence Based Treatment Centers of Seattle. For nearly a decade in private practice, Ashley has specialized in treating adults and adolescents with suicidal and self-harming behavior and continues to treat anxiety disorders using evidence-based models.

Amman, Jordan

Basma Kilani, PhD, M.A., is a Linehan Institute certified clinician, and a leading force in the dissemination of DBT across the Middle East and North Africa. Based in Amman, Jordan, she is the Founder and Chief Specialist at the Maria Den Braven Mental Health Center. There she leads multidisciplinary teams providing evidence‑based treatment for complex trauma, including conditions arising from the impact of war. She is known to both comfort and inspire her team at times of intense stress, and for steering a steady ship in the most difficult of circumstances. Dr Kilani is the Managing Director of DBT‑MENA, and has played a central role in establishing DBT infrastructure, training pathways, and clinical standards across multiple countries. She began her DBT journey in 2008 as a graduate student at the University of Jordan, since then gaining in expertise and recognition. In 2019, she was appointed DBT Ambassador for Jordan by Behavioral Tech / Linehan Institute. She joined the BTECH training team in 2020 under the mentorship of André Ivanoff, and has now delivered numerous DBT Intensives, Foundational Trainings, and workshops. She is the only verified trainer of BIDBT Emotion Regulation programmes in the MENA region. Her training portfolio includes collaboration with international partners, such as BTech and British Isles DBT Training. She continues the mission of expanding best quality DBT education to clinicians worldwide. She became the official BTECH Affiliate for DBT‑MENA in 2021, and is recognised as the leading DBT trainer for the Arab-speaking world. Her academic work reflects her commitment to culturally grounded, clinically rigorous research. Her PhD, supervised by Professor Michaela Swales, examined the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), borderline personality disorder (BPD) and non‑suicidal self‑injury (NSSI), with a focus on shame as a mediating factor.

Belmont, MA

Blaise Aguirre, MD, is an expert in child, adolescent, and adult psychotherapy, including dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and psychopharmacology. He is the founding medical director of McLean 3East, a unique, residential DBT program for young women exhibiting self-endangering behaviors and traits of borderline personality disorder (BPD) Dr. Aguirre has been a staff psychiatrist at McLean since 2000 and is nationally and internationally recognized for his extensive work in the treatment of mood and personality disorders in adolescents. He lectures regularly in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East on BPD and DBT. Dr. Aguirre is the author of Borderline Personality Disorder in Adolescents: A Complete Guide to Understanding and Coping When Your Adolescent Has BPD and Depression (Biographies of Disease). He is a co-author of Mindfulness for Borderline Personality Disorder: Relieve Your Suffering Using the Core Skill of Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Helping Your Troubled Teen: Learn to Recognize, Understand, and Address the Destructive Behavior of Today’s Teens

Pittsburgh, PA

Carla D. Chugani, PhD, LPC, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, at the University of Pittsburgh and licensed professional counselor currently practicing DBT at Western Psychiatric Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a college counselor and developed a DBT program for Florida Gulf Coast University. As such, she is intimately familiar with the implementation challenges and solutions associated with DBT programs on college campuses. She has conducted outcome research demonstrating the effectiveness of brief DBT interventions with college students, implementation research specific to the college counseling practice setting, and also partnered with Behavioral Tech, LLC to co-host the first DBT Intensive Training in the State of Florida. Her current research includes a multi-site trial investigating the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of an undergraduate college course designed to teach DBT skills as universal prevention (in partnership with course developer Dr. James Mazza) and a pilot trial of the DBT STEPS-A curriculum in a low-income high school.

Sydney, AUS

Carla Walton, PhD, is Service Director of the Centre for Psychotherapy, a specialist service for Borderline Personality Disorder and Eating Disorders within Hunter New England Mental Health Service in Australia. She has been involved in treatment provision to persons with Borderline Personality Disorder using DBT, in both public and private sectors in Australia for the past 15 years. Carla is the principal investigator on a large-scale randomized clinical trial of DBT and a psychodynamic therapy, the Conversational Model. She is a member of Marsha Linehan’s annual DBT Strategic Planning Meeting at the University of Washington. She has provided training and consultation in Borderline Personality Disorder and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy throughout public and private sector services throughout Australia. Her main research interests lie in the fields of Borderline Personality Disorder and translational research.

US

Casey Anderson, LCPC, received his Combined B.S. in Psychology: Clinical Concentration, Sociology, and Anthropology from Towson University and his M.S. in Clinical Psychology from Loyola University Maryland. Casey has professional experience in various settings including psychiatric/educational placements, partial hospitalization treatment, and outpatient mental health clinics. He is a certified Cognitive Diplomate through the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies, nationally certified in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), nationally credentialed as a Registered Play Therapist (RPT), and a National Certified Counselor (NCC). Casey’s primary clinic foci include treating children, adolescents, and families who exhibit extreme emotion dysregulation, suicidal/parasuicidal behaviors, disruptive problem behaviors, and trauma-related symptoms. He utilizes the following evidence-based treatment models in clinical practice: Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Children and Adolescents, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Casey is also trained in a promising practice to address children impacted by sexual abuse who exhibit problematic sexual behaviors: Safety, Mentoring, Advocacy, Recovery, and Treatment (SMART). Mr. Anderson is interested in group psychotherapy for adolescents who experience LGBTQ+ cultural stressors. He has provided trainings about childhood traumatic stress at the local and state levels.

New York, NY

Christine Foertsch, PhD, has been learning, delivering, and teaching Dialectical Behavior Therapy for almost 30 years. In 1994, she completed postdoctoral training at the New York Presbyterian Hospital in Westchester County, NY, where Marsha Linehan had just spent a sabbatical. teaching DBT to the staff, applying DBT to the patients there, and completing the seminal book on DBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder. Dr. Foertsch trained nationally and internationally for the Behavioral Technology Transfer Group (B-Tech) for over 20 years, consulting to individual practitioners, programs and hospitals, and entire state systems. In 1998, she developed and led a DBT Day Treatment Program in a large urban hospital setting, treating complex and high-risk patients in a fast paced and demanding environment. She taught and worked there until 2002, when she became the mom of twins. Since then, Dr. Foertsch has developed a private practice on the Upper West Side of New York City where she continues to learn to do DBT from every patient she sees.

Snoqualmie, WA

Dan Finnegan, LICSW, is the Director of the DBT program at Cadence Child & Adolescent Therapy in Kirkland, WA. He provides comprehensive DBT to teens and families in addition to training post-doctoral fellows in the DBT program. He is a Certified DBT Therapist and Cadence is a Certified DBT Program, both through the Linehan Board of Certification. Prior to this, Dan worked for the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration in Washington State for 17 years. He specialized on applying Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy to adolescent forensic settings in his roles as a trainer and program manager. Dan has worked on both the administrative and line level sides of development & implementation of evidence based programs for the State of Washington. Dan has been working with Dr. Marsha Linehan since 2000 at the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics (BRTC) as a volunteer with her consultation team, research therapist on clinical trials for both individual DBT and skills group, adherence coder, and supervisor for DBT. He completed his clinical practicum at the BRTC while obtaining his MSW at the University of Washington. Dan currently holds a Clinical Associate appointment at the University of Washington.

Vancouver BC Canada

Debbie Leung, Ph.D., R.Psych, received her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology from Stony Brook University (American Psychological Association-accredited) in New York in 2005 after completing her internship training at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Child, Youth and Family Program) in Toronto. In 2009, Dr. Leung completed a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Marsha Linehan at the University of Washington, where she received intensive training and supervision in DBT and in research on Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Dr. Leung has worked in various clinical settings including outpatient pediatric, inpatient adolescent psychiatry, adult mental health and substance use outpatient services, and community private practice. She is a registered psychologist in British Columbia, Canada and the director and founder of Wise Mind Centre, a community-based group practice that offers evidence-based psychological services such as CBT and comprehensive DBT. She also serves as a consultant of the DBT-informed program at Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Leung is a clinical associate of Simon Fraser University and provides supervision to graduate trainees in clinical psychology programs at University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and Adler University. In addition to clinical services, Dr. Leung has taught graduate level courses in clinical assessment at the University of British Columbia and undergraduate courses at Kwantlen University. Further, she has presented her research work in parenting and BPD in international conferences and published her work in these areas in peer-reviewed journals. Moreover, she has provided clinical consultations and workshops in DBT and BPD-related topics locally and internationally to other mental health clinicians.

Cleveland, Ohio

Denise Ben-Porath, PhD, earned her doctorate degree in clinical psychology from Kent State University. She is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at John Carroll University in Cleveland Ohio. Her research interests are in the area of DBT and its application to borderline personality disorder and eating disorders. Dr. Ben-Porath also has had over 20 years of experience as a DBT practicing clinician with difficult-to-treat, multi-diagnostic individuals, including but not limited to those diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety/depression, eating disorders, personality disorders. As a seasoned clinician and researcher, her experience of applying DBT to various treatment settings extends to residential settings, day treatment programs, inpatient units, VA hospitals, correctional facilities, community mental health centers, and private practice settings. She has provided numerous trainings both national and internationally on dialectical behavior therapy and is the author of over 30 publications. Her most recent publications include “Dialectical behavioral therapy: an update and review of the existing treatment models adapted for adults with eating disorders” and “Physical Health-Related Counseling Issues: Eating Disorders, Elimination Disorders, and Chronic Illness/Disability Counseling”.

Izmir, Türkiye

Dmitrii Pushkarev, MD, PhD, is a co-founder and the Chief of DBT training at BE Company, a training company located in Turkey and determined to provide evidence-based treatments training, including DBT Intensive Training™, for Russian-speaking professionals internationally. He serves as the leader of the DBT section of the Association of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapists in Russia (EABCT), and is a member of the Board of the Russian Association of DBT therapists. Since 2020 he is a Trainer with Behavioral Tech Institute. Dr. Pushkarev completed his medical and psychiatric training at Sechenov University in Moscow and completed a post-doctoral residency where he received his training in cognitive behavioral therapy. In 2015, in response to the need for evidence-based treatment for suicidal behavior in his home country, he formed the first DBT Team in Russia and invited Behavioral Tech and the Linehan Institute to provide DBT Intensive Training™ to his and other teams. He and his colleagues have developed a DBT-Skills self-study program to help teams prepare for training and to disseminate DBT in Russia and throughout the post-Soviet states. Currently Dr. Pushkarev is a Chief of an international DBT training program within BE Company (Izmir, Turkey).

Westchester County, NY

Donald Nathanson, LCSW, is a clinician specializing in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy currently in private practice in Westchester County, New York.  Previously, he was clinical faculty at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, where he co-directed an outpatient adolescent DBT program, and was the clinical director of the Youth-Dialectical Behavior Therapy Program.  Notably, Donald has helped to both clinically research and provide Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Pre-Adolescent Children (DBT-C).  He received his graduate degree from the Columbia University School of Social Work in 2012. Donald has an extensive research experience working on NIMH-funded trials investigating the feasibility and efficacy of behavioral interventions for pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Tourette’s Disorder, and Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder.

MN

Donna Pattie, MSW, LICSW, is the DBT Trainer and Consultant for 15 DBT outpatient teams at Nystrom & Associates, Ltd across the state of MN. Donna is a Linehan Board Certified DBT therapist and DBT Team Lead in New Brighton, MN for a Linehan Board Program Certified Team. Donna supervises team members and interns and has delivered DBT in both the Adult and Adolescent/Family programs since 2011. She was intensively trained by Melanie Harned in DBT PE, and has delivered DBT PE for the last 6 years. She supervises Nystrom clinicians across MN in the delivery of DBT PE monthly. Donna has run DBT standard adult outpatient groups, a DBT Adaptive Skills group for clients with traumatic brain injury/developmental delays and a DBT SUD group for clients with co-occurring substance use disorders. Prior to her work in MN, Donna delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in an outpatient private practice in North Easton, MA and previously was the Team Lead at the Brockton VA Medical Center’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Team. She started her work at the VA on the Substance Use Disorder Inpatient Detoxification and Rehabilitation programs. Donna brings over 30 years of experience in the clinical field and has a passion for fidelity to DBT and training both new and experienced clinicians in the field. She received her Master’s degree in clinical social work from Simmons College School of Social Work in Boston, MA.

Arlington, VA

Edward N. Shearin, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at American School of Professional Psychology, Washington, DC. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle with Dr. Marsha Linehan. His training included 5 years at the New York Hospital – Cornell Medical Center, first as a National Institute of Mental Health-funded postdoctoral researcher and then as an instructor for the medical school and Senior Psychologist on a DBT inpatient unit. Dr. Shearin is also active at state and federal levels in advocacy for improved access to mental health services, especially for underserved populations.

Seattle, WA

Elizabeth Dexter-Mazza, PsyD, received her undergraduate degree from Florida State University and her doctoral degree from the School of Professional Psychology at Pacific University.. She completed her predoctoral internship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center’s Adolescent Depression and Suicide Program under Dr. Alec Miller. Dr. Dexter-Mazza completed her postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Marsha Linehan at the University of Washington. While at the BRTC, she was the Clinical Director and has been a research therapist for multiple research studies, providing both individual DBT and DBT group skills training. Her clinical experience with DBT focuses on treatment for adult and adolescent populations along with family members. She has published several book chapters and peer reviewed articles on DBT, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and graduate school training in how to manage suicidal clients. She maintains a private practice in Seattle, providing individual DBT and skills based coaching and support to family members and friends of individuals with BPD As a co-author of the DBT for Schools social emotional learning curriculum, STEPS-A (Skills Training for Emotional Problem Solving with Adolescents), Dr. Mazza consults to schools on implementing the STEPS-A curriculum. She is licensed as a psychologist in the state of Washington.

Bronx, NY

Elizabeth E. Wagner, PhD, is a private practitioner specializing in DBT, CBT, and mindfulness with adolescents and adults. Dr. Wagner was on faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City from 2000-2009 where she divided her time between clinical, teaching, and research activities. During this time, she held various positions including Assistant Director of Montefiore’s Adolescent Depression and Suicide Program where she conducted and supervised DBT and CBT with teenagers and their families, co-investigator on an NIH-funded grant developing an adaptation of DBT for a triply diagnosed population (HIV-positive, substance abusing, with BPD), and attending psychologist in the Department of Surgery where she conducted pre-surgical psychological evaluations and supervised DBT skills training groups for bariatric surgery patients. Dr. Wagner received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Duke University and completed her internship at the Westchester Division of the New York Presbyterian Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. She has published and presented internationally on the application of DBT to various clinical populations. Dr. Wagner maintains private practices in Westchester and Manhattan.

New Zealand

Emily Cooney, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who has worked in the US, the UK, and New Zealand with children and adults in a range of inpatient and outpatient settings, with a particular focus on DBT. She is a senior lecturer at Otago University and an assistant professor adjunct at the Yale School of Medicine, where she co-directed the DBT and DBT for substance use disorder teams within an Intensive Outpatient Program. Emily served as a research therapist on two trials of DBT under Dr Marsha Linehan, and was the principal investigator on two DBT feasibility trials in New Zealand. One examined DBT for self-harming adolescents, and the other trialed DBT skills training for men with anger-related problems. Her current research focusses on DBT-oriented intervention and research for people experiencing family violence and suicidal thoughts and behavior.

US

Eunice Chen, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Temple University and runs the Temple Eating Disorders program. After receiving her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Sydney, Australia, she completed two Postdoctoral Fellowships, one with Kelly Brownell, PhD, at Yale University and the other with Marsha Linehan, PhD, ABPP, at the University of Washington, Seattle. Prior to this, she was an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Chicago where she ran an adult eating and weight disorders program. Her primary research interest is the etiology and treatment of individuals with eating and weight disorders. She has developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy for individuals with eating disorders for whom standard treatments fail (e.g. non-responders to Cognitive Behavior Therapy, individuals with eating disorders and co-occurring disorders, and adults with anorexia nervosa). In the process of conducting trials, she has trained therapists in the use of DBT with eating disorders.

Centreville VA

Fangyu “Hope” Qi, LCSW, is a DBT-LBC Certified Clinician by the Linehan Institute. Hope was intensely trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy during her graduate study at Columbia University under Dr. André Ivanoff. She is the founder of a private practice serving clients throughout the Greater Washington, D.C. area and multiple states via telehealth She has extensive experience working with adolescents, young adults, adults, and parents from diverse cultural backgrounds across outpatient, intensive outpatient (IOP), partial hospitalization (PHP), and private practice settings. Her clinical work integrates DBT, DBT-PE, and other evidence-based treatments to support individuals struggling with borderline personality disorder (BPD), PTSD, OCD, anxiety, depression, substance use, emotion dysregulation, and family or relational challenges. She has a particular interest in helping clients navigate interpersonal difficulties, family-of-origin dynamics, and cultural identity issues. Having grown up and studied in both China and the United States, Hope brings a nuanced understanding of how culture, immigration experiences, and family systems shape emotional wellbeing and personal development. She provides therapy in both English and Mandarin and is deeply committed to delivering compassionate, evidence-based care while contributing to the broader dissemination of high-quality mental health treatment and training.

New York City, New York

Faria Kamal, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Columbia University Medical Center and a licensed clinical psychologist in New York City. Dr. Kamal completed her internship/residency and post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine, specializing in DBT with adults and adolescents. Dr. Kamal is a founding member of the ISITDBT Anti-Racism Committee. ISITDBT is a volunteer organization of DBT professionals tasked with organizing an annual conference to bring together DBT clinicians nationally and internationally to increase knowledge and fidelity to the treatment. Her research has focused on providing effective mental health services to underserved communities, along with the assessment, implementation, and adaptation of behavioral practices to better serve diverse populations. For the past decade, Dr. Kamal has provided trainings to thousands of mental health providers on topics related to behavioral therapy, evidence-based clinical practices, and tailoring clinical services for underserved patients. She has also developed the first foundational DBT training on providing clinical services to diverse populations. Dr. Kamal is also the founder of Thrive Mind Clinic, which aims to provide effective, evidence-based, behavioral treatment for adolescents, adults, and families. Prior to starting her private practice, Dr. Kamal served as the Team Leader for DBT Services within the Columbia Day Program, where she helped create and build adherent DBT group treatment within an intensive outpatient setting, along with training and supervising medical students, externs, post-doctoral fellows, and staff.

Greece

Fragiskos Gonidakis, MD, is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUOA) Medical School. He is currently the Head of Eating Disorders Unit and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy service of NKUOA 1st Psychiatric Department at Eginition Hospital. Dr. Gonidakis has trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Systemic Family Therapy and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. His clinical and research interests are focused on Eating Disorders, Transcultural Psychiatry and Borderline Personality Disorder. He has worked extensively in training and supervising mental health experts in Greece and Europe in CBT for Eating Disorders and DBT for Borderline Personality Disorders. He has developed two distance learning programs on Eating Disorders and Borderline Personality Disorders that are delivered thought the e-learning platform of NKUOA. He is the co-author of five books in Greek: Anorexia Nervosa; Talking about Eating Disorders; Eating Disorders: Cognitive Behavioral approach; Talking about Borderline Personality Disorder, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy; and Ten steps for the treatment of Bulimia Nervosa. He has published in English and Greek more than 80 papers in psychiatric textbooks and scientific journals. He is currently the president of the Greek Association for Behavioral Research member association of the European Association for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (EABCT), and secretary of the Eating Disorders section of the Greek Psychiatric Association.

White Plains, NY

Francheska Perepletchikova, PhD, is a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification Board Certified Clinician is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Perepletchikova received her B.A. degree at St. John’s University and graduated with a gold medal for the highest academic average. Dr. Perepletchikova received graduate training in two disciplines — developmental and clinical psychology. She obtained an M.A. in Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1996 and received Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Yale University Department of Psychology in 2007 (with the James B. Grossman Best Dissertation Prize). During her internship and post-doctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Perepletchikova gained expertise in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). She obtained intensive and advanced intensive trainings in DBT with Dr. Linehan. Further, Dr. Perepletchikova has been established as able to deliver DBT with adherence and calibration as a reliable DBT adherence rater by Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics at the University of Washington. In 2015, she became a BTech trainer. In 2016 Dr. Perepletchikova became a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification Board Certified Clinician. Dr. Perepletchikova has a long-standing interest in emotion regulation, trauma-related psychopathology, depressive and anxiety problems, suicidality and self-harm behaviors. Her research focuses on childhood psychopathology, psychotherapy development, and evaluation of treatment integrity in treatment outcome research. As a faculty at Yale University and Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Perepletchikova developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy for children and conducted several randomized clinical trials to empirically validate this model. This line of research has been funded by the grants from NIMH, NRSA and private foundations. Dr. Perepletchikova authored 25 journal articles and book chapters for the book Treatment Integrity in Treatment Outcome Research (2009). She has conducted over 60 lectures, presentations and workshops around the world. As a clinician, Dr. Perepletchikova is currently in private practice. She is a Founding Director of the Youth-Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Program that specializes in treating children with severe emotional and behavioral dysregulation and training clinicians in the approach.

Towson, MD

Gloria "Seo" Yi, LCSW-C, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-C) and a Board-Certified Supervisor in the state of Maryland. Gloria is a DBT-LBC Certified Clinician. Gloria obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland and her master’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Gloria maintains a private practice in Timonium, Maryland, which offers comprehensive DBT, as well as other evidence-based treatments. Before opening her own practice, Gloria worked at Kennedy Krieger Institute, where she was the coordinator of the DBT program at the Trauma Center. Gloria is active in providing trainings and speaking at conferences on topics related to mental health. She provides trauma and suicide prevention trainings for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Maryland chapter and for the state of Maryland. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and teaches advanced level social work students. Gloria was trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Pre-Adolescent Children (DBT-C) and continues to be mentored and provides trainings with the program developer, Francheska Perepletchikova, Ph.D. Gloria is certified in providing services in Korean through the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Gloria also holds certifications in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) as well as Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT).

Kalamazoo, MI

Gwen Abney-Cunningham, LMSW, is currently the Director of Faculty of Relations at Behavioral Tech. In this role she ensures that those providing training and consulting on behalf of BTECH do so with the most current information available and employ the most effective methods in their endeavors, Gwen also provides training and consultation to mental health professionals in empirically supported behavioral treatments. She facilitates and/or co facilitates workshops teaching Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to various audiences across the world, including state and county mental health systems. Prior to coming to Behavioral Tech full time, she was employed at a community mental health agency for 32 years, in many roles, including DBT Services Supervisor, Outpatient Services Director, and most recently as Evidenced Based Treatment Director. Gwen received her bachelor’s degree from Hope College and her MSW from Grand Valley State University. She has 34 years of professional experience and is a member of one of the first teams in the U.S. to apply DBT within an ACT program. Gwen is intensively trained in DBT and an experienced workshop leader at state, national, and international conferences. Gwen continues to work as a DBT therapist because it is effective and the hope it brings to clients and their families. As a BTECH Trainer and consultant, she is also able to assist many mental health providers in learning the treatment to assist in helping many individuals. Gwen’s experience in DBT includes individual and skills training for adults, adolescents and families and providing DBT supervision to clinicians. In addition, she has assisted in the development and implementation of DBT on ACT teams and in outpatient settings. Gwen has been involved with the large-scale implementations of DBT in Michigan for Community Mental Health settings. She has been a Behavioral Tech trainer for 20 plus years. Gwen is currently serving on the curriculum development team and Behavioral Tech Trainer Advisory Committee. She has also served on the Behavioral Tech Implementation Science Workgroup.

Ridgefield, CT

Haleh Ghanizadeh, MD, MPH, is Board Certified in General Adult and Forensic Psychiatry. Experienced in providing administrative and psychiatric services in city, state and federal prisons and jails, she currently consults to prison systems, state organizations and public schools in the areas of assessment, staff training and program development for emotionally and behaviorally challenged youth and adults. She trains and consults individually and for Behavioral Tech, LLC, and has a private practice in Wilton, CT. Her special areas of clinical expertise involve providing Dialectical Behavior Therapy and pharmacotherapy to teens, adults and their parents, when trauma, impulsivity, depression and anxiety are prominent.

Montreal Canada

Hélène Poitras, OTR, is an occupational therapist and psychotherapist. She has been a clinician for more than 30 years at the outpatient psychiatric clinic at the CIUSSS Centre-Sud-de-l’Ile-de-Montréal. Her main focus is on clients with borderline personality disorder. She has been practicing DBT since 2005 and has completed numerous DBT trainings since 2007. The development of her DBT expertise has been refined with Marsha M. Linehan, founder of this therapy, and other DBT expert trainers in the United States. She is Trainer for Behavioral Tech. Ms. Poitras regularly offers lectures, conferences, and trainings in DBT. She is a consultant and supervisor for many teams, therapists and students in Quebec. Moreover, she participated as a member-expert and trainer in research projects on DBT in Quebec. Ms. Poitras founded TCD Québec to support the development of DBT, particularly in the French-speaking world, by offering training, consultation, and mentoring to teams and therapists.

Reykjavik, Iceland

Inga Wessman MSc, Cand.Psych, is a psychologist and the owner/CEO of the Anxiety Clinic for Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults in Reykjavik, Iceland. The clinic also offers a DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) program for both adolescents and adults. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the Department of Psychology at the University of Iceland, with an expected completion by 2026. Inga is also an adjunct professor at the University of Iceland, where she supervises graduate students in clinical psychology both in clinical training and for their Master's theses at both the University of Iceland and Reykjavik University. Inga graduated from the University of Iceland with an MSc in 2015 and a Cand.psych degree in 2016. She trained at the Behavioral Research and Training Clinic (BRTC), led by Marsha Linehan, the creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, while studying at the University of Washington. Inga also received clinical training at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, for two years and has participated in research projects at the hospital. Inga is a member of the committee that helped establish the European DBT Association and, together with others, is working on creating a DBT Association in Iceland. Currently, Inga is conducting research on suicidal imagery in adolescents and young adults and is collaborating on a study evaluating DBT group therapy for individuals on the Autism Spectrum in Norway.

BC Canada

Janet Campbell, MSW, has been working in mental health services for over 25 years. She has experience in community, adolescent residential, and hospital based mental health services, as well as the manager of the provincial Family Court Centre, which provided assessments to the courts in child protection matters. She was designated as a lead for implementation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy in child and youth mental health in British Columbia in 2008. She has provided training and consultation on DBT to community mental health teams, the provincial residential treatment centre, and youth forensic outpatient clinic staff, as well as community addictions workers. She has led the implementation of DBT with rural and urban child and youth mental health teams. Janet has a long history of training and mentoring graduate students and also supervising clinical supervisors and clinicians. Janet is currently the supervisor of a regional youth day treatment program which provides full DBT and she treats youth with suicidal behaviour.

US

Janice Kuo, PhD, received her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Washington where she was directly mentored and supervised by the developer of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Dr. Marsha Linehan. After receiving her doctorate, Dr. Kuo completed her internship at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. Dr. Kuo is currently a faculty member at the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium where she is actively involved research, teaching, and supervision. Her scientific work focuses on clarifying emotion-related dysfunction underpinning Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), suicidal behaviors, and trauma-exposed individuals and developing innovative treatments for these populations. Dr. Kuo has published numerous scientific articles on these topics and her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Mental health and the Canadian Institute of Health Research. She is one of the PIs of a large, multi-site trial (i.e., the FASTER study) comparing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of 12 months of standard DBT versus 6 months of standard DBT. Dr. Kuo is among the first cohort to be certified as a DBT therapist by the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification and she has conducted national and international workshops in DBT since 2005. In addition to her scholarship and teaching activities, Dr. Kuo is also the director of a private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area where she provides DBT and other cognitive-behavioral treatments.

Seattle, WA

Jasper Berg, PhD, is the Co-Director of the DBT Center at the Evidence Based Treatment Centers of Seattle (EBTCS). Dr. Berg earned their doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Emory University, studying personality disorders and impulsivity. They completed their clinical internship at Yale University, and their postdoctoral fellowship within the VA Puget Sound Health Care System. In addition to DBT, Dr. Berg has expertise in evidence-based interventions for trauma and substance use. Dr. Berg is a volunteer with the DBT-LBC Mentorship Program to support clinicians pursuing DBT-LBC Certification. They are also a clinical instructor at the University of Washington Marsha M. Linehan DBT Clinic, where they supervise psychology graduate students providing comprehensive DBT.

Seattle, WA

Jennifer Sayrs, PhD, ABPP, is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Evidence Based Treatment Centers of Seattle (EBTCS). At EBTCS, she directs the DBT Center, one of the first DBT programs in the nation to be certified by the Linehan Board of Certification. She is the co-author of the book DBT Teams: Development and Practice, written with the DBT treatment developer, Dr. Marsha Linehan. Dr. Sayrs completed her graduate training at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she studied DBT and behavioral theory, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Linehan at the University of Washington, where she was the clinical coordinator for Dr. Linehan’s DBT research clinic. She has served as a research therapist and adherence coder on several DBT trials; she is also a trainer for Behavioral Tech, providing a wide range of DBT workshops around the world. In addition to 25 years of experience providing DBT, she also provides CBT for a variety of anxiety-related problems. Dr. Sayrs is certified by the Linehan Board of Certification and the American Board of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology and is a licensed psychologist in the state of Washington.

Missoula, MT

Jennifer Waltz, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Montana. She trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) under the supervision of Dr. Marsha Linehan from 1987-1992. As a senior trainer, she conducts training and supervision in DBT throughout the U.S. Dr. Waltz has published a number of articles and book chapters on DBT. She was Principal Investigator on an NIMH-funded project designed to develop videotapes of DBT skills training. Other areas of research are mindfulness, self-compassion, and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy. As a professor, her teaching focuses on training and supervising graduate students in clinical psychology. She resides in Missoula, MT, where she also maintains a private practice.

Brooksville, NY

Jill Rathus, PhD, (PhD Stony Brook, BA Cornell), is Professor of Psychology at Long Island University/CW Post Campus in Brookville, New York where she directs the DBT Clinical Research Training Program. She is also Co-Founder and Co-Director of Cognitive Behavioral Associates in Great Neck, New York, where she runs the Adolescent DBT program. Dr. Rathus’ has published six books and dozens of articles specializing in DBT for adolescents, adolescent suicidality, assessment, CBT, anxiety disorders, and relationship distrƒess. She co-developed the adaptation of DBT for Adolescents, co-authored the primary texts on adolescent DBT, DBT with Suicidal Adolescents (2007), and DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents (2015, both Guilford Press), serves as a DBT trainer for Behavioral Tech, and teaches mental health professionals internationally.

Cambridge, MA

Joan Wheelis, MD, is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Associate Psychiatrist at McLean Hospital and on the faculty for the McLean/Massachusetts General Hospital Residency Training Program. She is the director of the outpatient DBT Training Clinic for residents and junior faculty at McLean Hospital and has served for many years as a DBT consultant to the McLean affiliated Gunderson Residence and the Outpatient Borderline Clinic In 1996 she founded Two Brattle Center, an outpatient mental health clinic in Cambridge, specializing in intensive DBT treatment. She began her own formal training in DBT in 1997 and became a DBT Trainer for Behavioral Tech in 2003. She maintains a private practice in Cambridge and is also a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. Her particular interests include the treatment of chronic suicidal behavior of patients with borderline psychopathology and the relationship of insight and action in producing therapeutic change.

Sacaton, AZ

Joel Beckstead, PhD, ABPP, graduated from Brigham Young University with a PhD in clinical psychology in 2002. He is board certified in clinical psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. Upon graduating from Brigham Young University, he served for 4 years in the United States Army from 2001-2005 and deployed to the Pentagon in 2001 shortly after 9/11 to provide support to the service men and women stationed there. After completing his service in the Army, he accepted a job with Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement as the Arizona Mental Health Consultant. In July of 2009 he was hired as the Clinical Director of Desert Visions Youth Wellness Center in Sacaton, Arizona.

Warwick, RI

Julie F. Brown, PhD, is the author of the Emotion Regulation Skills System for the Cognitively Challenged Client: A DBT™-Informed Approach (2016). Julie is the director of the Emotion Regulation Skills System program at Justice Resource Institute. She is an independently licensed social worker and has provided individual and group therapy for individuals with complex learning and behavioral health issues for over 25 years. Julie has been a DBT trainer with Behavioral Tech since 2005, specializing in improving the accessibility of DBT for individuals with cognitive impairments. In addition to publishing articles and book chapters addressing issues related to intellectual disabilities, she authored the book The Skills System Instructor’s Guide: An Emotion Regulation Skills Curriculum for All Learning Abilities in 2011.

Massachusetts

Katherine Dixon-Gordon, PhD, received her undergraduate training from the University of Washington, where she worked as a research intern and staff member at the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics (BRTC), directed by Marsha Linehan, Ph.D. Dr. Dixon-Gordon received her doctoral training from Simon Fraser University working with Alex Chapman, Ph.D., and completed her internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Dixon-Gordon has served as an investigator on several grant-funded studies of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), BPD, and self-injury, and has published many theoretical and empirical articles on emotion regulation, BPD, and DBT. She is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she teaches, conducts research, and supervises the DBT Program.

Bellevue, WA

Kathryn E. Korslund, PhD, ABPP, is a clinical psychologist and behavioral health executive with more than 25 years of experience in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), evidence‑based suicide treatment, and enterprise‑level clinical operations. She served as Associate Director of the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics at the University of Washington, where she worked with Dr. Marsha Linehan as a co‑investigator on multiple DBT clinical trials and co‑developed the University of Washington DBT Adherence Coding Scale. She is also a co‑developer of the DBT Adherence Checklist for Individual Therapy (DBT AC‑I) and a contributing author to the 2025 revised DBT Skills Training Manual and DBT Skills Training Handouts & Worksheets. Dr. Korslund held senior leadership roles at THIRA Health—including Chief Executive Officer, Chief Clinical Officer, and Clinical Director—where she designed, built, and led comprehensive DBT residential, PHP, and IOP programs for individuals with emotion dysregulation, suicidal behavior, and complex comorbidities. She later served as Director of Clinical Care at Two Chairs, overseeing national remote‑first clinical operations and tech‑enabled digital triage implementation. She is the founding President of the DBT‑Linehan Board of Certification and has provided DBT training, consultation, and fidelity monitoring across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Dr. Korslund is a licensed psychologist in Washington State and board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology, a Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology, and additionally certified by the DBT‑Linehan Board of Certification and the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety.

NY

Kimberly Vale, LCSW-R, is a licensed psychotherapist in Westchester County, New York, with more than 20 years of experience working with children and families. Her expertise includes crisis stabilization for youth in inpatient psychiatric settings and evidence-based outpatient treatment for individuals and families. Kimberly specializes in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), focusing on children, adolescents, adults, and parenting interventions. During her 15 years as a clinician at New York-Presbyterian Westchester Behavioral Health Center, Kimberly became a leading expert in adapting DBT for children with severe emotional and behavioral dysregulation (DBT-C). Trained by Dr. Francheska Perepletchikova, the developer of DBT-C, Kimberly continues to provide treatment, consultations, and training in collaboration with Dr. Perepletchikova to promote the global advancement of this DBT adaptation. Currently, Kimberly is a presenter and consultant for Behavioral Tech Institute, contributing to the worldwide dissemination of DBT. She presents at trainings, offers consultations to clinical teams, and educates communities through lectures and workshops. In addition, she supervises clinicians and provides parent management interventions to ensure the effective implementation of empirically-supported practices in both DBT for children and adolescents (DBT-C and DBT-A). Kimberly earned her graduate degree with high honors from New York University. She is deeply committed to advancing evidence-based treatments for children, adolescents, and adults, offering consultations, training, and psychotherapy rooted in behavioral therapy principles.

Atlanta

Dr. Vay is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Certified Professional Counselor Supervisor in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Vay is the founder and owner of Evidence Based Therapy & Consultation of Atlanta, LLC. Dr. Vay is the President of the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification™ and a DBT Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician ™. Dr. Vay has also received intensive training in Radically Open DBT (RO-DBT), Prolonged Exposure-DBT for trauma (DBT-PE), DBT-PTSD, DBT protocol adapted for children (DBT-C) as well as Level One and Two of Theraplay® and Group Theraplay®. Dr. Vay also has experience as a supervisor, Clinical Director, and Program Director. Prior to working in the outpatient setting, Dr. Vay worked in education as a Department Chair of the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support Program (GNETS) before transitioning to the residential setting where, in addition to providing clinical care, she served in several roles and assisted with the development of an Experiential DBT Day Program. In addition to being a DBT Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician ™, Dr. Vay is an experienced speaker who has presented at multiple professional conferences and facilitates training for clinicians, residential treatment staff, educators, and parents. She is passionate about DBT education and the effective practice of DBT, outside of clinical settings.

New Zealand

Dr. Kirsten Davis is a Clinical Psychologist who has worked with both adolescents and adults across both public mental health and private sectors for the last two decades. Kirsten is a founding member of DBTNZ. Kirsten was involved in development, implementation and coordination of the first DBT Program for adolescents and their families at the in New Zealand. Kirsten was a co-investigator in a randomized feasibility trial of DBT for adolescents and their families in New Zealand. She has extensive experience in DBT consultation, supervision and training in community outpatient, inpatient, forensic, residential (care & protection settings) and schools. She has been a trainer for many Behavioral Tech licensed events including DBT Intensive Training. Kirsten is particularly interested in implementation and development of sustainable DBT programs across a variety of different settings.

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Laurence Y. Katz, MD, FRCPC, is currently Professor and Head, Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He is a psychiatrist on the Intensive Child and Adolescent Treatment Service where he is the team leader of the adolescent DBT outpatient service. He is also a senior DBT Trainer with Behavioral Tech, LLC in Seattle, Washington. He took his medical training at the University of Manitoba and earned his M.D. in 1993. He took his adult psychiatry training at the University of Manitoba and then went to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, N.Y. to complete his training in Child and Adolescent psychiatry. He earned his board certification in 1998. While at Einstein he spent 2 years training in DBT for suicidal adolescents supervised by Dr. Alec Miller. His main areas of research interest are in suicide, the treatment of suicidal behavior and psychiatric epidemiology. He holds or is a co-investigator on numerous grants in these areas of interest. He has been invited to speak on these topics at international conferences and has published extensively in the area.

San Diego, CA

Dr. Leslie Karwoski Anderson is a clinical associate professor and training director at the UCSD Eating Disorders Center for Treatment and Research. She has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Kansas and completed her clinical internship at Duke University Medical Center. She previously held a clinical faculty appointment at the University of Washington, was a supervisor in Marsha Linehan’s DBT training clinic, and has worked as a psychologist at the DBT Center of Seattle and the DBT Center of San Diego. Her research interests are in treatment development, evaluation, and outcomes, especially with regards to evidence-based treatments for eating disorders. She has published many journal articles and two books in this area (Clinical Handbook for Complex and Atypical Eating Disorders; Innovations in Family Therapy for Eating Disorders). She is the co-Editor in Chief for Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention and has held various leadership positions in the Academy of Eating Disorders.

Durham, NC

Lorie Ritschel, PhD, is a certified DBT therapist through the DBT-LBC and is an expert trainer of DBT and the DBT Prolonged Exposure protocol. She earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Kansas, and she completed postdoctoral fellowships at Duke University Medical Center and Emory University School of Medicine. She is a co-founder of the Triangle Area Psychology Clinic (TAP), an outpatient clinic in Durham, NC that specializes in DBT and other empirically supported treatments for adolescents, adults, couples, and families. She is also an Associate Professor at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine in the UNC TEACCH Autism Program, where she works with autism experts on the development and implementation of DBT for autistic individuals.

Canada

Lorne Korman, PhD, R.Psych., is a registered psychologist and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Korman’s research has focused on adapting DBT to help adults and youth struggling with anger and addiction. Dr. Korman is featured in the APA video Working with Anger, and he is the author of an empirically supported module of skills for anger problems. He has published numerous articles and chapters on emotion, psychotherapy, and DBT, most recently co-authoring a chapter with Dr. Kyle Burns on treating suicidal adolescents who have concurrent substance use disorders.

Cleveland, OH

Lucene Wisniewski, PhD, FAED, is the owner and founder of Lucene Wisniewski, PhD, LLC, and DBTOHIO, as well as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. From 2006-2014, she served as Clinical Director and co-founder of the Cleveland Center for Eating Disorders, a comprehensive eating disorder treatment program offering evidenced based care. Wisniewski served as the Chief Clinical Integrity Officer of the Emily Program, a multi-state eating disorder program from 2014-2017. Her research and clinical interests center around program development and using empirically founded treatments to inform clinical practice. She provides workshops on the CBT and DBT treatment of eating disorders internationally and publishes in peer reviewed journals as well as invited book chapters. Dr. Wisniewski has been elected fellow, has served on the board of directors, and as the co-chair of the Borderline Personality Disorder special interest group of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED). In 2013 the AED awarded Dr. Wisniewski the Outstanding Clinician Award to acknowledge her contribution to the field of eating disorder treatment.

Los Angeles

Marcus Rodriguez, PhD, is the Founder and Director of the Youth and Family Institute in Los Angeles (yfinstitute.com). He is also Director of the Global Mental Health Research Lab (globalmentalhealthlab.com) and Associate Professor of Psychology at Pitzer College. Dr. Rodriguez earned his master’s at Peking University, his PhD in clinical psychology from Duke University, and internship at the 3East DBT Program at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Marcus was born in California, grew up in Mexico, studied in Germany for a year during college, lived in China for 9 years after college, and has traveled to more than 80 countries. He provides direct patient care, consultation, supervision and training in English, Spanish and Mandarin. He has helped train thousands of mental health professionals throughout the United States, China, and Latin America. He teaches mindfulness and DBT at the Norco State Prison through the Pitzer College’s Inside-Out Pathway-to-BA Program. He was the lead consultant of a 13-site randomized controlled clinical trial (RCT) examining the efficacy of DBT in inpatient hospital settings and a co-PI for a multi-site RCT of DBT on college campuses in China. He published a book on DBT in Mandarin, co-authored dozens of articles in peer-reviewed journals, and made more than 100 clinical and scholarly conference presentations. He enjoys travel hacking, making memes and writing children’s books.

Walnut Creek, CA

Margarita Lorence, PhD, is a private practitioner specializing in DBT, CBT and self-compassion with adults. She is certified in prolonged exposure therapy, integrating self-compassion in psychotherapy and trained as a mindfulness teacher. She completed intensive training in both standard DBT and DBT-PE with expert trainers. Dr. Lorence has taught and supervised graduate students in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. In her practice she focuses on integrating self-compassion and mindfulness into trauma treatment.

Freiburg, Germany

Martin Bohus received his specialty in Psychiatry and in Psychosomatic Medicine. Since 2003 he has held the Chair of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at Heidelberg University and is Scientific Director at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim. He holds a visiting professorship at the University of Antwerp and Harvard Medical School. He has received several awards for psychotherapy research. He is past president of the European Society for the Studies of Personality Disorders (ESSPD) and is president of the German Association for DBT. He was president and initiator of the 1st International Congress on Borderline Personality Disorder in Berlin in 2010. He has currently published more than 300 articles and book chapters, mainly on mechanisms of psychotherapy, borderline personality disorders, and PTSD.

Durham, NC

Dr. Meggan Moorhead is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a Clinical Associate at Duke Medical Center. She is currently co-director of a DBT Program Triangle Area DBT includes a program for High School Juniors and Seniors, undergraduate and graduate students, three stage one skills groups for adults, and three graduate groups. She is participating in a research therapy team at Duke for DBT with the depressed elderly. Dr. Moorhead is a graduate of Princeton and Boston Universities with degrees in East Asian Studies and Counseling Psychology. She trained with Dr. Linehan in the first national training of DBT at Duke and Cornell Universities. Her particular interest in DBT has been its meticulous theoretical and clinical attention to a highly respectful relationship with the patient. Dr. Moorhead was born and raised in Japan and has lived in South Africa. She was trained psychoanalytically in Boston, MA, as well as in North Carolina. She brings to her teaching of behavioral principles and skills an ability to be sensitive to diversity across cultures and languages.

Seattle, WA

Melanie Harned, PhD, ABPP, is the Coordinator of the DBT Program and a Core Investigator in the Health Sciences Research Center of Innovation at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle Division. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington. Dr. Harned has previously worked as the Research Director of Dr. Marsha Linehan’s Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics at the University of Washington (2006-2018), Director of Research and Development for Behavioral Tech, LLC (2014-2017), and Director of Behavioral Tech Research, Inc. (2013-2016). Dr. Harned’s research focuses on the development and evaluation of the DBT Prolonged Exposure protocol for PTSD as well as methods of disseminating and implementing this and other evidence-based treatments into clinical practice. She regularly provides training and consultation nationally and internationally in DBT and DBT PE and has published extensively on these treatments. She is a certified DBT therapist, a certified PE therapist and consultant, is board certified in Behavioral and Cognitive therapy, and is licensed as a psychologist in the state of Washington.

Cambridge, MA

Dr. Hollander is a nationally recognized expert on the etiology and treatment of self-injury, and lectures nationally on the subject. He has been treating adolescents and their families for over 40 years and has held numerous positions of clinical leadership at McLean. He is a co-founder of the McLean’s exceptional 3East Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program, and provides consultation to patients, family and staff. He is a trainer for Behavioral Tech, and travels nationally and internationally training clinicians in DBT. In addition to Dr. Hollander’s work at 3East, he is a supervisor in McLean’s Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT) clinic and a supervisor in the Behavioral and Research Training Clinic at the University of Washington. He is on the faculty of the McLean/Massachusetts General child psychiatry fellowship program and was recognized as Teacher of the Year in 1998.

Colwyn Bay, UK

Michaela Swales, PhD, is Professor in Clinical Psychology and Programme Director of the North Wales Clinical Psychology Programme, Bangor University and an accredited DBT Supervisor.  She trained in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy in Seattle in 1994 / 95 with Marsha Linehan and for twenty years ran a clinical programme for suicidal young people in an inpatient service as an accredited therapist.  Michaela is the Director of the British Isles Training Team, a training team recognised internationally for its quality.  She has trained more than a thousand professionals in DBT, seeding over 600 programmes, in both the UK and further afield.  She has pioneered the use of benchmarking to assess the performance of DBT teams in routine clinical practice.  She co-authored, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy: Distinctive Features (2009; 2017) and Changing Behavior in DBT: Problem-Solving in Action (2015).  She is the Editor of the Oxford Handbook of DBT (2019).  Her primary research interest is the effective implementation of evidence-based psychological therapies in routine clinical practice. Michaela was a member of the Working Group on Classification of Personality Disorders, reporting to the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Advisory Group for the Revision of ICD-10 Mental and Behavioural Disorders.  She is President of the World DBT Association and of the European Society for the Study of Personality Disorders.

San Diego, CA

Milton Brown, PhD, received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University, and completed his Ph.D. and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington under the mentoring of Marsha Linehan. During his pre-doctoral and post-doctoral work, he collaborated with Dr. Linehan on several research projects evaluating the efficacy of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for borderline personality disorder (BPD). He completed a clinical internship at the Palo Alto Veteran Affairs Health Care System focused on posttraumatic stress disorder (National Center for PTSD) and substance abuse. Dr. Brown is currently the director of the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Center of San Diego and teaches classes on DBT at the California School of Professional Psychology (Alliant International University) in San Diego. His research and clinical work focuses on 1) chronic suicidality and self-injury, 2) Dialectical Behavior Therapy for borderline personality disorder, 3) emotion regulation strategies, 4) exposure and opposite action therapies, and 5) shame and its treatment. He has published primarily on the psychopathology and treatment of borderline personality disorder and suicidal behaviors.

Cincinnati, OH

Nicholas L. Salsman, PhD, ABPP, is a professor of psychology at Xavier University where he is the director of the Xavier University Psychological Services Center and runs the Xavier University Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program. Dr. Salsman is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, Society for Clinical Psychology. Dr. Salsman received his BA from Transylvania University and his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Louisville. He completed an internship at the adult and child psychiatry departments of Vanderbilt University. He also served as a postdoctoral fellow and research associate for Dr. Marsha Linehan at the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics (BRTC) at the University of Washington from 2005-2007. While at the BRTC, he served as a DBT therapist on two large randomized clinical trials of DBT and an adherence coder on two research trials. He has published on topics including DBT, Borderline Personality Disorder, and emotion regulation. He has regularly given local, national, and international workshops, presentations, and invited talks on DBT, has consulted with and trained clinicians at various facilities, and trains and supervises doctoral clinical psychology students. Dr. Salsman has received grant funding to develop adaptations of DBT for older adults with complicated grieving and older adults with chronic pain. He is licensed as a psychologist in the state of Ohio.

Ann Arbor, MI

Nicole Taylor Kletzka PhD, is the DBT Director for the State Hospital Administration in Michigan, and a Consulting Forensic Examiner for the State of Michigan. She is responsible for developing and ensuring DBT model adherence and sustainability for comprehensive DBT programs within Michigan’s state hospital system. Nicole developed a DBT program at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in 2010 which has served over 1000 patients. She has developed a staff mentor and cross-site unit staff coaching program, as well as a DBT student training program. Dr. Kletzka completed the DBT Linehan Board of Certification process in 2015 and joined Behavioral Tech as a contractual DBT trainer and consultant in 2016. She specializes in working with inpatients, system implementations, and forensic populations. She has expertise in DBT for patients with intellectual disabilities and in trauma-informed treatment. She has developed and implemented an adapted DBT model called DBT for All Learning Styles (DBT-FALS) for treating individuals who struggle to learn due to psychosis, intellectual disability or other problems encountered in individuals with severe mental illness. Dr. Kletzka previously worked at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego with child trauma victims and has been an affiliate member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network for over a decade. She co-coordinates the Michigan State Hospitals’ Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) team. She has published and presented in multiple venues on DBT in forensic settings, suicide, staff burnout, trauma, objective and performance-based personality assessment, and treatment outcomes.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Pablo Gagliesi, MD, graduated from the Catholic University of Cordoba and University of Buenos Aires. He is a specialist in Psychiatry at the National University of Buenos Aires, and graduated in Psychoanalytic, Systemic, and Cognitive-Behavioral psychotherapy. Dr. Gagliesi is DBT-LBC certified and certified in EMDR. He is the first official Trainer for Behavioral Tech in Latin America. Dr. Gagliesi is a former Member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Cognitive Therapy of Argentina and the Association of Argentine Psychiatrists. Currently, Dr. Gagliesi is a teacher and supervisor of clinical postgraduate psychotherapy at Fundación Foro, University of Luján and Favaloro University and teacher and supervisor of the residents of psychiatry and psychology in the city of Buenos Aires. He is a former visiting scholar at Marsha Linehan’s lab at University of Washington Behavioral Research and Therapy Center. Dr. Gagliesi has been disseminating DBT in Latin America and Spain for the last 15 years. He is globally recognized as a DBT expert who has coordinated implementation efforts and provided consultation, supervision, and mentorship throughout Latin America and the Spanish-speaking world. He is the Director of DBT Iberoamérica, an institution whose main objective is to spread DBT in the Spanish-speaking world by offering DBT training to mental health professionals. In 2019 he founded Tres Olas (www.tresolas.com) a publishing house that translates, edits, and publishes titles of recognized DBT authors and experts, among others. In 2018, with Lic. Juan Pablo Boggiano, Dr. Gagliesi published his first book, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, with a prologue by Dr. Marsha Linehan. In 2021, he published his second book, Sumar al Amor with Dr. Paula José Quintero. Both books can be found at Tres Olas.

Boston, MA

Pamela J. Buck, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and DBT Linehan Board of Certification–Certified Clinician with extensive international experience in clinical training, supervision, and program development. She serves as a Staff Psychologist and Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Boston Child Study Center and is a Lecturer of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Across her roles, Dr. Buck is deeply committed to strengthening trauma informed, culturally responsive mental health systems and supporting clinicians working in diverse cultural, linguistic, and resource settings. Dr. Buck specializes in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and trauma focused treatments, including DBT Prolonged Exposure, DBT PTSD, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and Prolonged Exposure Therapy. In addition to her clinical work, she has held senior leadership roles at the Portland DBT Institute, where she directed specialty PTSD programs, supervised multidisciplinary teams, and supported high standards of ethical and model adherent practice. Her teaching and consultation style emphasizes practical skill development, reflective practice, and thoughtful adaptation of evidence based treatments to local cultural values, clinical systems, and community needs. Dr. Buck’s professional path reflects a longstanding commitment to global mental health and cross cultural collaboration. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Duke University. She has extensive academic and field experience across South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America. She has worked extensively in refugee and immigrant mental health and in training clinicians and community based and paraprofessional providers internationally. Dr. Buck is fluent in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian, with additional proficiency in Arabic, Japanese, Thai, Russian, and German. She regularly provides DBT training, consultation, and supervision to clinicians and teams throughout the United States and South and Southeast Asia, approaching this work with cultural humility, curiosity, and respect for locally grounded knowledge and practice.

Argentina

Paula José Quintero, PhD, es psicóloga clínica que ha trabajado en Argentina con adultos en una variedad de entornos hospitalarios y ambulatorios, con un enfoque particular en la Terapia Dialéctico Conductual (DBT). También es Terapeuta formada en Terapia de Aceptación y Compromiso (miembro de Association for Contextual Behavioral Science-ACBS) y se formó en Terapia de Activación Conductual BATD por el desarrollador de modelos Carl Lejuez PhD. Paula ha publicado sobre temas que incluyen DBT, trastorno límite de la personalidad y regulación de las emociones. Es coautora de varios libros entre ellos: “Tratamiento Breve de Activación Conductual para Depresión” (2016), “Terapia de Aceptación y Compromiso con Adolescentes” (2017), “Activación Conductual para Depresión: Manual para participantes” (2018), “Sumar al Amor” (2021). Fue coautora del capítulo “New Insights on the Treatment of Emotional Problems” (2018) en Psychiatry and Neuroscience Update: From Translational Research to a Humanistic Approach - Volumen III. Editores: Pascual Ángel Gargiulo y Humberto Luis Mesones Arroyo. Saltador. Tiene varias publicaciones de investigación que incluyen temas como The Argentinian version of the cognitive fusion questionnaire:Psychometric properties and the role of cognitive fusion as a predictor of pathological worry. Current Psychology; Intervenciones para Familiares de personas con Trastorno Límite de la Personalidad basadas en la Terapia Dialéctico Conductual (DBT). Cognición y comportamiento. CALMA, a Mobile Health Application, as an Accessory to Therapy for Reduction of Suicidal and Non-Suicidal Self-InjuredBehaviors: A Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. Archives of Suicide Research. Además de impartir formación en DBT a través de Behavioral Tech y DBT Iberoamérica, también ofrece formación en DBT en Fundación FORO (Buenos Aires) y lidera la coordinación de los grupos de Habilidades DBT para pacientes y familiares. Ha impartido regularmente talleres, presentaciones y charlas locales, nacionales e internacionales sobre DBT.

Worldwide

Randy Wolbert LMSW, CAADC, Zen Rōshi, is a DBT trainer with Behavioral Tech. Randy trains and consults widely throughout the World, directing several large-scale system implementations. Prior to joining Behavioral Tech full-time, Randy served as Clinical Director of InterAct of Michigan, responsible for the programs of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), DBT, Integrated Dual Disorders Treatment and outpatient substance abuse. Randy is a long time Zen student of Marsha Linehan Randy was recognized by Willigis Jaeger as a Zen teacher in 2016 and was confirmed as a Zen teacher in 2018 by Marsha Linehan. In 2021 he received transmission as a dharma heir of Zen Master (Rōshi) Greg Mayers. He has lead mindfulness workshops and Zen mindfulness retreats in the US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Germany. Recently, he authored the chapter, “Modifying behavior therapy to meet the challenge of treating BPD: Incorporating Zen and Mindfulness.” In M. A. Swales (Ed). Oxford Handbook of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Pueblo, CO

Robin McCann, PhD, is a consultant at Behavioral Tech, where she educates health professionals on Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) throughout the United States and worldwide. She previously worked as Director of Psychology at the Institute for Forensic Psychiatry, Colorado Mental Health Institute. Dr McCann led the design of DBT adaptations for individuals adjudicated Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI). Compared to standard outpatient DBT, Dr McCann recognizes the need for DBT to be applied differently to criminals who have multiple diagnoses and violent histories. Dr McCann’s expertise in DBT in criminal justice and forensic hospital settings paved the way for DBT forensic inpatient treatment across the United States. She was named as a noteworthy Clinical Psychologist by Marquis Who’s Who. Dr McCann is widely published in journals such as Cognitive and Behavioral Practice and the Behavior Therapist. Her most recent publication, entitled Comprehensive DBT Forensic and Correctional Programs, can be accessed in the book Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Clinical Practice (2021).

Columbia, Missouri

Ronda Oswalt Reitz, PhD, is the Coordinator for Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) services for the Missouri Department of Mental Health. In this role, she is charged with the implementation, support, and evaluation of DBT programming in public mental health settings statewide. Dr. Reitz specializes in large-scale implementation of DBT and has developed comprehensive DBT programming in community mental health systems, inpatient hospitals, and in juvenile and adult forensic settings. Dr. Reitz is also a national trainer-consultant for Behavioral Tech, the treatment dissemination company founded by Dr. Marsha Linehan, the developer of DBT. Dr. Reitz is a graduate of the University of Kansas.

Pittsburgh, PA

Samiram (Sami) Saghafi, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for adults and young adults. Dr. Saghafi has extensive training and clinical experience in evidence-based treatments for suicidality, emotion dysregulation, and complex mental health presentations. Dr. Saghafi began her DBT career during her doctoral training in Philadelphia, providing comprehensive DBT across diverse clinical settings including community mental health clinics, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, and college counseling centers. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in New York focused on DBT for adolescents, further deepening her expertise in this modality. Dr. Saghafi is the founder of Saghafi Behavioral Health Services, a practice dedicated to evidence-based therapy and supervision. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

Seattle, WA

Sara Schmidt, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Washington, where she is in private practice, and a DBT-Linehan of Certification, Certified Clinician™. Until 2021, she served as the Associate Director of the Trauma and Suicide Treatment Research Lab at the Seattle Institute for Biomedical and Clinical Research, part of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, where she was a Co-Investigator on NIMH-funded research focused on the evaluation and implementation of DBT and the DBT Prolonged Exposure (DBT PE) protocol for PTSD. As part of this work, she co-developed the DBT Adherence Checklist for Individual Therapy (DBT AC-I), a tool that can be used by DBT therapists to evaluate the degree to which they are delivering DBT in a way that is consistent with the treatment manual, as well as the DBT Program Fidelity Checklist (DBT PFC), which enables programs to evaluate their fidelity to DBT and identify potential areas for improvement. Dr. Schmidt received her BA in Psychology from Wesleyan University, and my MA and PhD in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina. She com­pleted her pre-doctoral internship at Westchester Jewish Community Services in Hartsdale, NY., and her postdoctoral training with Dr. Melanie Harned at the University of Washington’s Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics (BRTC). Following her postdoctoral fellowship, she remained at the BRTC as a Research Scientist, where she directed the graduate training program in DBT. She currently maintains a Clinical Instructor position through the Department of Psychology supervising advanced doctoral students. She also previously worked as a Research Scientist at Behavioral Tech, LLC, where she assisted in developing training content, methods, and customized implementation plans. Dr. Schmidt has experience providing DBT in a variety of settings, including community mental health, private practice, and residential facilities, and works with both adults and adolescents. She regularly provides professional trainings and consultation in DBT and DBT PE nationally and internationally and has published several peer reviewed articles and book chapters on these topics.

White Plains, NY

Sarah Reynolds, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with over ten years of experience providing DBT training, system consultation, and direct service in a wide variety of settings. These include private practice, community mental health, assertive community treatment teams, residential treatment facilities, state mental hospitals, and inpatient and outpatient psychiatry centers. She developed expertise in DBT during a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington under the mentorship of Professor Marsha Linehan. At the Linehan research clinic Dr. Reynolds was a DBT research therapist, clinical supervisor, and expert adherence coder. From 2002—2007 she was Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center where she led a DBT team, developed an elective rotation in DBT for psychiatry residents, and conducted research on borderline personality disorder (BPD) and women’s health outcomes. Dr. Reynolds is former Program Chair for ISITDBT (2008 & 2009) and continues to serve as a member of the executive board. She participated as a DBT expert panelist at the 2011 meeting of the National Educational Alliance for BPD (NEA-BPD). She has published both theoretical and empirical articles on DBT, personality disorder, and suicidal behavior. She is in private practice in New York City where she conducts DBT with both adolescents and adults. She also teaches at the Columbia University School of Social Work where she is Adjunct Assistant Professor.

Toronto, Canada

Shelley McMain, PhD, is Head of the Borderline Personality Disorder Clinic and a Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada. She also serves as Director of the Psychotherapy, Humanities, and Psychosocial Interventions (PHPI) Division and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. In addition, she is a founder and co-Director of the Centre for MindBody Health, a private psychotherapy clinic in Toronto, Canada. Dr. McMain is a leading expert in the treatment of personality disorders. Her research focuses on clinical trials and the translation of evidence-based treatments into clinical practice. She also investigates the psychological and biological correlates of personality pathology and treatment response, as well as the mechanisms and mediators that explain how therapy brings about change. Her clinical and research interests include psychotherapy process and outcomes, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), borderline personality disorder (BPD), and transdiagnostic factors such as the therapeutic alliance and emotion regulation. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals across psychiatry and related disciplines, including Nature Genetics, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and BMC Psychiatry. She has written 11 book chapters and co-authored 4 books. Dr. McMain has secured more than $13 million in research funding as a Principal and/or co-Investigator from agencies such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Ontario Mental Health Foundation. Her contributions to research and clinical innovation have been recognized through numerous international awards from organizations including the European Society for the Study of Personality Disorders, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the International Society for the Improvement and Teaching of Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and the Personality Disorders Institute at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. McMain has received multiple teaching awards from the University of Toronto, including the 2021 Excellence in Teaching Award for the DBT Certificate Course, the 2021 Ivan Silver Award for Excellence in Continuing Professional and Practice Development, the 2010 Colin Woolf Award for Excellence in Course Coordination, and the 2009 Ivan Silver Award for Excellence in CME Teaching. She has held numerous professional leadership roles, including the first President of the World Dialectical Behavior Therapy Association (WDBTA), Transitional Board and the President of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR). She currently serves as Past President of the WDBTA.

New York

Shireen L. Rizvi, PhD, ABPP, is Director of Psychology Training and Director of DBT Services and Research at Montefiore and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Rizvi is a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 25 years of experience in using Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Washington. She completed her psychology internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Boston VA Healthcare System, National Center for PTSD.  From 2009-2024, Dr. Rizvi was Professor of Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology. Her research interests include improving outcomes, training, and dissemination of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for the treatment of complex and severe populations. Dr. Rizvi has received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Rutgers University, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) for her research. Her work has resulted in over 100 articles and book chapters, as well as a sole-authored book entitled Chain Analysis in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and a co-edited volume, DBT in Clinical Practice (2nd edition). Her latest book, Real Skills for Real Life, is designed to teach DBT skills to anyone who desires to improve their coping in life. Dr. Rizvi is Board Certified in Cognitive Behavioral Psychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology and Dialectical Behavior Therapy by the Linehan Board of Certification. She is a Fellow of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the American Psychological Association (Division 12). Dr. Rizvi is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, was a Founding Member of the New York City Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Association, and was a founding board member of the World DBT Association. Dr. Rizvi has trained hundreds of students and practitioners from around the world in DBT. She has received the Spotlight on a Mentor Award from the Association of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (2017), the International Society for the Improvement and Teaching of DBT (ISITDBT) Perry Hoffman Service Award (2020), and Professor of the Year for Excellence in Teaching, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (2022).

Durham, North Carolina

Sindhu Shivaji, PsyD, is a DBT provider at the Triangle Area Psychology (TAP) Clinic in Durham, North Carolina. She earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Baylor University, and completed fellowships at the Houston VA Medical Center and the TAP Clinic. Throughout her training, Dr. Shivaji has specialized in the conceptualization and care of race-based stress and identity-related trauma. At TAP, she provides individual-, couples-, and group-level DBT care and is an active member of TAP’s DBT Team. Dr. Shivaji is currently collaborating with colleagues at TAP to develop protocols for managing shame as a Stage 2/Stage 3 intervention. Dr. Shivaji strongly values community and social justice-oriented efforts, and strives to contribute significant portions of her time and resources to supervision, trainings, and clinical work that will result in greater reach of DBT to underserved populations.

Israel

Shamshy Schlager, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, and founder and director of Modi'in Behavioral. He specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which are the gold-standard, evidence-based approaches for treating a variety of clinical disorders. Before making aliyah, he served as a clinical psychologist and supervisor at Cognitive Behavioral Associates (CBA), a group private practice in Great Neck, NY, which is co-directed by Ruth DeRosa, Ph.D. and Jill Rathus, Ph.D., an internationally recognized expert in both CBT and DBT and a certified DBT trainer responsible for co-developing the adolescent adaptation of DBT. Having moved to Israel in 2018 from New York, Dr. Schlager currently lives in Modi'in, Israel with his wife and children.  Dr. Schlager is a licensed clinical psychologist, both in Israel and NY. He completed his bachelor’s degree in psychology at Queens College (summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and my master’s and doctorate degrees (Psy.D.) in clinical psychology at Long Island University—Post. In his career as a clinical psychologist, he has been committed to working with some of the most difficult to engage and emotionally dysregulated clients with energy, compassion, and enthusiasm. ​While commonly treating individuals and families struggling with common, everyday issues, such as anxiety, depression, and relationship problems, he is also accustomed to treating clients who have been assumed to be beyond the pale of help because of their experiences with extreme emotional distress and suffering, and their struggles with multiple diagnoses and complex problems, including suicidality and self-injurious behavior. ​Dr. Schlager specializes in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), exposure based treatments, and mindfulness based therapies, all of which are evidence-based treatment approaches that have been found to be extremely effective in treating individuals experiencing a variety of problems, including mood-related problems, substance use, eating disorders, family and relationship problems, anger, depression, and those whose difficulties include engaging in suicidal and self-injurious behavior.

Connecticut

Suzanne Decker, PhD, is a clinical psychologist at VA Connecticut Health Care System and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. She received her doctorate from Western Michigan University, completed predoctoral internship at Yale University School of Medicine, and completed postdoctoral fellowship at VA Connecticut Health Care System and New England Mental Illness Research and Clinical Center. Dr. Decker studies DBT Skills Groups to reduce suicide risk.

Anoka, MN

Dr. Witterholt has worked for the Minnesota Department of Human Services since 1994. For over six years, she directed a DBT inpatient unit at the Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center. Subsequently, she turned her attention to the development of the community’s capacity to effectively treat individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder and related conditions. Since 2006, she has been working with treatment developer, Marsha Linehan, PhD; to implement DBT certification of clinicians and programs based on the evidenced-based fidelity standards of the model. Currently, she is on the Board of Directors of the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification. Having consulted extensively in Minnesota and throughout the United States, she is actively involved in developing access to, teaching and implementation of DBT and other evidenced-based practices in the public mental health sector. In recognition of her work, she has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Seattle, WA

Anthony P. DuBose, PsyD, serves as the Vice President of Institute Services and Director of Continuing Education/Continuing Medical Education (CE/CME) at Behavioral Tech Institute. His career has been shaped by a longstanding commitment to expanding access to effective care for individuals at high risk for suicide and self injury. Dr. DuBose first encountered Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) while working with hospitalized adolescents, and the transformative outcomes he witnessed set the course for his professional life. For more than a decade, Dr. DuBose has led Behavioral Tech’s global training and implementation efforts, working in close collaboration with professional associations, government agencies, and large healthcare systems to strengthen their capacity to deliver high quality, sustainable DBT services. In this role, he has guided teams of internationally recognized experts and partnered with leaders across multiple countries and U.S. states to design and implement large scale DBT training models. He plays a key role in the development of DBT training models, many of which have been translated into multiple languages and integrated into diverse cultural and organizational contexts. Dr. DuBose is known for his collaborative and strategic approach to implementation of DBT in systems, both large and small. He works closely with policymakers, administrators, clinical leaders, and key stakeholders to help them build programs that are both evidence based and responsive to local needs. His work reflects a deep respect for the communities he serves and a belief that effective implementation requires humility, partnership, and a shared commitment to improving care for people in crisis. He has trained and consulted with providers worldwide on the treatment of borderline personality disorder, substance use disorders, and suicidal and self injurious behaviors in both adolescents and adults. He has played a central role in several national and regional DBT implementation initiatives and continues to support organizations seeking to expand access to evidence based care. Dr. DuBose is a member of the International Dissemination and Training & Implementation Committees of the World Association for Dialectical Behavior Therapy (WDBTA) and previously served on its transitional Board of Directors as Treasurer. He is licensed as a psychologist in Washington State and is certified by the DBT Linehan Board of Certification (DBT LBC). He earned his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Pacific University of Oregon, completed his predoctoral internship at Western State Hospital, and fulfilled his residency requirements as a postdoctoral fellow in clinical child psychology at the University of Washington. Prior to becoming a psychologist, he earned a Master of Science in counseling from Loyola University of New Orleans and worked as a family therapist. His early work with adolescents at the Child Study and Treatment Center—where he served as director of the older adolescent program—solidified his dedication to serving individuals at highest risk. Dr. DuBose is a Founding Member and former President & CEO of the Evidence Based Treatment Centers of Seattle, PLLC. He held clinical faculty appointments in the University of Washington’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Department of Psychology from 1998 to 2012 and collaborated with Marsha Linehan, PhD, ABPP, and colleagues on research focused on DBT, particularly its dissemination and implementation. He also served on the strategic planning group that established the WDBTA. He lives in Seattle, Washington in the United States.

Seattle, WA

Dr. Forsythe Cox, PhD, is a Clinical Associate professor and the director of the Marsha M. Linehan Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Clinic at the University of Washington. She teaches courses and provides supervision to advanced graduate students learning to deliver DBT. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification certified clinician. She has provided clinical services in a variety of settings, including Veteran Affairs medical centers, university psychological services centers, private outpatient clinics, and maximum-security forensic inpatient settings. Dr. Forsythe Cox is also a trainer and consultant for The Behavioral Tech institute, a non-profit training company founded by Dr. Linehan which provides training and consultation for DBT clinicians nationally and internationally. Dr. Forsythe Cox has worked to increase collaborative efforts in the DBT community to help providers better serve clients with diverse identities.

Brazil

Vinícius Guimarães Dornelles is a psychologist (PUCRS), the first internationally recognized native Portuguese-speaking Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Trainer in the world, recognized by Behavioral Tech (USA). He holds a Master’s degree in Psychology (PUCRS), with a concentration in Human Cognition, and completed Intensive Training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy through The Linehan Institute and Behavioral Tech (USA). He received training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy from the University of Luján (Argentina) and training in Evidence-Based Treatments for Borderline Personality Disorder from Fundación Foro (Argentina). He is a specialist in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies, Managing Partner of DBT Brasil, Local Coordinator of the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Intensive Training Program in Brazil, and Treasurer of the World DBT Association (WDBTA).

Baltimore, MD

Dr. Botanov received his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Kansas, completed a predoctoral internship at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and specialized in Dialectical Behavior Therapy through a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington with Dr. Linehan. Currently, he is an assistant clinical professor and assistant director of clinical training at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to this position he held assistant professor appointments at Pennsylvania State University - York and Millersville University. His research interests explore effective and efficacious interventions for depression and suicide. Specifically, he is interested in what interventions work and how well do they work to treat depression and reduce suicide. Additionally, he is interested in clinical science literacy, especially how the (mis)understanding of science affects clinical practice.