Pine Rest is excited to announce that we are now accepting referrals to our Dialectical Skills Group for clients without a Pine Rest therapist! For years, Pine Rest has been a leader in providing Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) services to the West Michigan area. Expanding this group to community-based therapists is intended to make this life-enhancing form of treatment accessible to more members of our community.
What is the Dialectical Skills Group?
Our Dialectical Skills Group (DSG) is a 25-week group that teaches participants the same skills they would learn in a comprehensive DBT program. It is designed for lower acuity clients who could still benefit from learning DBT skills to achieve their goals.
Our hope is not only to be a resource for clients but also provide significant value for the individual therapist. While your client learns valuable, often life-changing skills in the context of a group setting with highly trained DBT clinicians, individual therapists will be able to use valuable session time on processing through life stressors and discuss how to apply skills to challenging situations.
The DSG team sees treatment as a collaborative process and will provide regular updates on what your client is learning in group. We also look forward to hearing from you about your clients’ growth as well as any challenges they might be facing so we can best support them on their skill development journey.
The Dialectical Skills Group is facilitated by Mark Steenwyk, PsyD, Licensed Psychologist, and Jenn Victor, LMSW, BCBA, CAADC—two fully trained DBT clinicians with a decade-plus of combined experience in DBT.
“Our goal is to empower both clients and their therapists,” says Steenwyk, co-facilitator of the DSG. “By offering structured, skills-based DBT-informed groups, we help clients build emotional resilience and behavioral flexibility—while giving therapists more space to deepen the therapeutic work in individual sessions.”
Ideal candidates for DSG
- Have a history of problems with emotional dysregulation, interpersonal difficulties, and have been in treatment consistently for some time, but have not made significant gains.
- May or may not have prior exposure to DBT but are open to learning and practicing new skills.
Individuals with a recent history of self-harming behavior, suicide attempts, or significant substance use issues would not be appropriate for this program.
Referral Note
Although clients do not need to be seeing a Pine Rest therapist, all clients must have a Pine Rest staff member on their care team prior to being referred—either a prescriber or case manager—to be eligible for this program.
Contact us regarding questions and referrals!
We are happy to talk with you further about your client’s needs and potential referral options. We hope you will consider entrusting us with assisting you in caring for your patient, and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach us at 616.891.8770.
