Upaya is dedicated to the adherent delivery of standard, outpatient Dialectical Behavior Therapy. We have a comprehensive program for adults (18+) and adolescents (age 13-18) involving all 4 required components: 1. individual therapy, 2. skills training group, 3. phone coaching, and 4. consultation team.
Qualifications/Requirements
1. Licensed as LPC, LCSW, or LMFT. Provisionally licensed clinicians or students doing their supervised experience with an Upaya clinician are also welcome.
2. Basic interest/philosophy in Cognitive Behavior Therapy.
3. Agree to all consultation team agreements and client assumptions.
4. Willingness to deliver adherent DBT to at least three Stage 1 individual clients and lead at least one skills training group at any given time; these minimums could be higher depending on program need at any given time.
5. Willingness to provide as needed phone coaching including but not limited to evenings and weekends.
6. Consistent in-person attendance at weekly consultation team meeting on Tuesdays 9-11am with no less than 90% attendance in a year.
7. Willingness to attend periodic team trainings or retreats outside of consultation team meeting time.
8. Willingness to do periodic independent study/reading or preparation.
9. Commit to delivery of DBT and Upaya team participation for a minimum of one year.
10. Register on dbtmo.org website with Upaya team (work toward core certification).
Preferred qualifications
1. Completed formal training in DBT (i.e. Introductory/individual treatment/intensive training through dbtmo.org or another reputable training resource)
2. Read Koerner’s “Doing DBT” and/or Linehan’s 1993 manual
3. Participation on a DBT consultation team for at least one year, treating stage 1 DBT clients and leading or co-leading skills training group
Upaya’s founder and director, Dr. Amanda Bittner, is a nationally-certified DBT therapist by the Linehan Board of Certification; she has been delivering comprehensive DBT since 2010. She has written a DBT textbook chapter and provided several introductory and topic-specific trainings on DBT in the St. Louis community. She is the leader of Upaya’s DBT team, providing on-going internal training and support for the team along with its other members. Interested therapists, please send a cover letter and résumé or CV to Amanda for consideration at [email protected].