Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) Treatment & DBT Therapy in New York
Specialized BPD therapists serving Long Island, Queens, NYC and clients throughout New York.
Our Borderline Personality Disorder comprehensive DBT Program Includes:
DBT is not just talk therapy. It’s a structured, skills-based treatment designed to help you build a life that feels connected, and manageable. Our Personality Disorder Therapists are invested in helping you learn to grow, accept, and work towards the life you deserve. Ideally doing so by working through difficult moments so life isn’t spent living from one crisis to the next. Learning to experience all emotions and deciding what to do with them rather than impulsively acting on them.
In weekly sessions, you and your therapist review your DBT diary card together and focus on the goals that matter most to you building a life that feels more stable, meaningful, and worth living.
The diary card helps you become more aware of your emotions, urges, and behaviors, especially the patterns that may be getting in the way of the life you want.
DBT Skills Group at Suffolk DBT is more like a class than traditional group therapy. We begin with a brief mindfulness practice to help everyone slow down and focus.
Then we review homework , how you practiced your skills during the week and introduce new tools to help you manage behaviors, relationships, and stressful situations. You will learn Distress Tolerance Skills to distract from high emotional arousal. The focus isn’t on rehashing problems it’s on building solutions and learning practical ways to handle challenges more effectively.
Emotional moments don’t wait for your next session. Phone coaching gives you brief support to help you use your DBT skills in real time, when urges to engage in behaviors are high and it’s hardest to think clearly.
The goal isn’t to provide therapy over the phone, but to help you practice responding in skillful ways so you can handle challenges with more confidence and control.
WE Help Teens, Adults, and Families with Borderline Personality Disorder
Our Personality Disorder Therapists are on a Consultation Team.
Your BPD therapist is part of a DBT consultation team, which means your care is supported by a group of DBT-trained professionals working together behind the scenes.
We keep on another accountable and we know that being a Personality Disorder Therapist requires a strong support system . On our team we keep our therapists motivated and each of us are aware of your progress and may even be your group leader, co- leader.
DBT works because it combines acceptance and change helping you feel understood while also learning how to do things differently. You learn to be less reactive , less impulsive, having a stronger sense of self with less self- invalidation, better relationships, and the ability to make choices that eventually enhance your life.
Do you Experience Fear of Abandonment?
Fear of Abandonment is one of the most painful symptoms of BPD.
It’s not just a thought , it can feel like an immediate wave of panic, as if something important is definitely about to be lost
Even small shifts , a message not responded to , someone you care about spending time with someone else, or silence can trigger:
- Intense panic
- Urgency to reach out and check on the person
- Intense Fear that the relationship is ending
In those moments of feeling desperate , it can feel almost impossible to sit with the uncertainty.
You May Notice:
- Needing constant reassurance
- Feeling like you can't live without the person
- Thinking the person is cheating
- Thoughts may feel like facts
- Checking their phone
- Being unable to sit with the unkown
These patterns make sense – but they can also make relationships feel unstable and exhausting. The other person may not understand it. We also know that these fears of abandonment often start in childhood.
Can People with Borderline Personality Disorder Get Better?
For many people living with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), one of the biggest fears is wondering whether things will ever truly change. Research over the past several decades has shown that with the right treatment, meaningful improvement is possible.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was specifically developed to help individuals struggling with intense emotions, impulsive behaviors, relationship difficulties, self-harm, and chronic emotional suffering. Brain imaging studies have also shown measurable changes in areas of the brain involved in emotional regulation and stress response in individuals receiving DBT treatment.
In studies comparing people receiving DBT to individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder receiving treatment as usual, the DBT groups showed improvements in brain activity related to managing emotions, emotional reactivity, and stress response, while the treatment-as-usual groups did not show the same level of improvement.
In plain English, this research helps support what many people experience in treatment: emotions can become less overwhelming, relationships can become more stable, and life can begin to feel more manageable over time.
Study Citation:
Schmitt R, Winter D, Niedtfeld I, et al. Effects of psychotherapy on neural responses to rewards in borderline personality disorder patients with and without self-harm behaviors. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 2017;12(5):739–749.
Why Early Diagnosis of BPD in Teens Can Change and even save Lives
Many teens struggling with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are often misunderstood before they are properly diagnosed.
Parents may notice self-harm, cutting, suicidal thoughts, emotional outbursts, unstable friendships, fear of abandonment, impulsive behaviors, school avoidance, isolation, or rapidly changing emotions and not fully understand what is happening.
These behaviors are often dismissed as “dramatic,” oppositional, manipulative, or attention-seeking when, in reality, many teens are struggling with overwhelming emotional pain and difficulty regulating emotions.
While no single behavior alone means a teen has BPD, patterns of emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, relationship instability, identity confusion, chronic emptiness, and high-risk behaviors occurring together over time may indicate the need for specialized treatment.
Early diagnosis is not about labeling a teen , it is about helping families understand what their child is experiencing so they can receive the right treatment before painful patterns become more severe or deeply ingrained.
You may have questions or concerns about therapy for borderline personality disorder…
I’ve already been through so many diagnoses and treatments. How do I know this borderline personality disorder treatment will help?
Many people with borderline personality disorder have had painful or frustrating treatment experiences before getting the right diagnosis. BPD is often misunderstood, and not all therapies are designed to treat intense emotional dysregulation.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was specifically developed to treat BPD. It focuses on teaching concrete skills to manage overwhelming emotions, improve relationships, and reduce self-destructive behaviors. When DBT is delivered as a full program, it offers structure, support, and tools that many people have never been taught before.
A different diagnosis does not mean you are beyond help. It may simply mean you haven’t had the right treatment yet.
I’ve self-harmed in the past. If I’m honest with you about that, will you send me to the hospital?
Our goal is not to hospitalize you. Our goal is to help you stay alive and learn how to get through the hardest emotional moments safely.
Many people who self-harm were never taught how to tolerate intense feelings. Instead, they learned ways to escape or shut them down. In DBT, we help you unlearn those patterns and build real skills for getting through emotional pain without hurting yourself.
We want you to be honest with us. Those are the moments where therapy matters most. We work alongside you during those times helping you slow things down, understand what you’re feeling, and apply skills that actually help.
Most of my therapists quit working with me will that happen once again ?
Many people with borderline personality disorder have had painful or frustrating treatment experiences before getting the right diagnosis. BPD is often misunderstood, and not all therapies are designed to treat intense emotional dysregulation. Our BPD Therapists understand based on research and their training there is a way to help you get better.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was specifically developed to treat BPD. It focuses on teaching concrete skills to manage overwhelming emotions, improve relationships, and reduce self-destructive behaviors. When DBT is delivered as a full program, it offers structure, support, and tools that many people have never been taught before.
Our DBT Therapists enjoy helping clients with BPD as we know how to help you and the treatment model protects the therapist from burning out, the client from losing hope, and it does this by the strategies and protocols within the model. We also have a full team supporting both the therapist, the client , and in most cases the families.
Ready to Get Started With Help for Borderline personality Disorder and speak with an Intake Specialist?
At Suffolk DBT, we specialize in Dialectical Behavior Therapy for people with BPD who experience emotions intensely and want real tools to build stability and change painful patterns. Our team provides structured, compassionate DBT treatment for children, teens and adults, both in person and through secure telehealth across New York.
If you’re ready to begin learning skills, feel more in control, and build a life that feels worth living, we’re here to help you take the first step.
Completely confidential. Only takes 10-15 minutes.
