Germany
About Us
Like so many other therapists in Europe in the 1990s, we had come back from Seattle infected and enthusiastic about M. Linehan’s DBT training. We were immediately set to work on implementing the program in Germany. We had a clear advantage: in Germany, health insurance companies finance not only 100 hours of outpatient psychotherapy for each person but also residential treatments for up to three months, if needed. Therefore, we could adopt the residential DBT model developed by Charlie Swenson. That was in 1996. Meanwhile, we have 52 certified inpatient DBT treatment units in Germany, treating around 2,500 patients yearly. In addition, there are extensive outpatient services specializing in adolescents, PTSD, eating disorders, and co-occurring addictions.
Local therapy programmes
Members
The DBT umbrella organization organizes all of this. When we founded this association in 2001, there were 12 members. Today, in 2024, there are over 700 members and over 1,000 certified DBT therapists (including 120 specialized DBT-A therapists). We also welcome therapists and representatives from our German speaking neighbors (Switzerland and Austria). Most of our therapists meet yearly at our DBT network meeting, to which we also invite international speakers from the DBT community.
Of course, all of this requires a great deal of organizational work, which is done by an excellent office, which in turn is financed by the members’ contributions. The annual contributions amount to 90 euros per person, which is quite a bit.