All clinicians and researchers agree: borderline disorder begins in adolescence. This finding is now also reflected in the treatment guidelines S2 and S3: the recognized specialist groups recommend both diagnosis and disorder-specific therapy from the age of 15 at the latest.
Back in the 1990s, Alec Miller and Jill Rathus developed DBT-A as a disorder-specific adaptation of standard DBT for adolescents and young adults. The effectiveness has now been proven in two large, independent studies (Mehlum et al., 2014; McCauley et al., 2018).
In the German-speaking area, we published the corresponding guide for borderline disorders in adolescence (Wewetzer & Bohus, 2016) as well as the interactive skills training for young people (von Auer & Bohus, 2017). The DBT umbrella organization strongly supports and promotes the spread of DBT-A in German-speaking countries. A specific curriculum for DBT-A was developed, which is taught by specially trained, experienced trainers from the field of child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy.
The training to become a DBT-A therapist is set out in the umbrella association ‘s guidelines .
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