DBT Ozarks

04/22/2026

Hey KC and Kansas therapists!

🌿 Ready to expand your toolkit for supporting neurodivergent clients with emotion regulation skills?

Discover how therapeutic horticulture can offer a powerful, somatic approach to teaching vital coping skills. This training will equip you with practical strategies to help your clients thrive.

Learn more and register for our upcoming training: https://www.dbtozarks.org/plantbasedemotionregulation

This workshop is designed for licensed therapists, and those interested in innovative therapeutic approaches, looking for new tools to engage their clients.

04/21/2026

These are scenes from my Saturday morning ADHD therapy group at DBT Ozarks. Mindfulness of Current Emotions, Check the Facts, and Opposite Action skills taught somatically through plant pruning. 🌱✌️🫶

I’m here to validate that plant therapy (Horticultural Therapy) is a real thing! It’s a research-based approach to delivering the treatment of mental health symptoms.

I’m nearing completion of my HT board certification and I am an experienced Dialectical Behavior Therapy provider that teaches skills through Horticultural Therapy methods, while maintaining fidelity to treatment models.

My 2nd set of therapist trainings starts in May!

https://www.dbtozarks.org/plantbasedemotionregulation

04/16/2026

This is one of my favorite Horticultural Therapy activities to teach mindfulness in DBT Skills group. It’s normal for our brains to time travel and our job is to non-judgmentally observe and return to the present moment. Over and over again. Are you planting your seeds in the past, present, or future?

I created a plant therapy TikTok account for internship purposes. All plants, no talking. 🫶🌱

—> https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTk5m3XY5/

04/11/2026

Last call to register for the Monday night class "How to Stay Calm When Someone You Love Has Big Emotions".

This class is for people who often find themselves trying to stay grounded during emotionally intense conversations, especially when things escalate quickly and it’s hard to know what to say in the moment.

We’ll focus on practical communication and validation skills drawn from DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), including:

• understanding why conversations escalate
• how to respond in a way that reduces defensiveness
• ways to slow things down before conflict spirals
• how to approach difficult conversations more effectively

This is an educational class (not therapy), and it’s structured with short teaching segments, examples, and optional chat-based questions.

📅 Mondays | 6:00–7:00 PM CT
🖥️ Live online | 4 sessions

If this sounds like something you or someone you know could benefit from, you can learn more here:

https://www.dbtozarks.org/caregiversupport

03/19/2026

Here is a simple, practical tool for navigating emotionally intense conversations.

This is a 5-minute reset you can use when a conversation starts to escalate, whether that’s with a partner, family member, or someone you care about.

It walks you through:

* how to pause your own nervous system
* how to recognize what the other person might be feeling
* how to respond in a way that reduces escalation instead of adding to it

This is something I teach often, because most of us were never actually taught how to stay grounded in hard conversations.

There’s no email required, just follow the link and use it however you would like. More info on the upcoming family communication class is included.

--Kristen DBT Ozarks/DBT Hub

03/17/2026

We are offering a small live online class this spring:
Family Communication Skills for Emotionally Intense Relationships

This is an educational class focused on teaching practical DBT-informed communication and validation skills.

It’s designed for people who are often in the role of trying to stay regulated while navigating emotionally intense conversations with someone they care about.

Great for parents, partners, and friends of people who experience big emotions and emotional sensitivity.

The format is intentionally structured:
– live teaching
– real-life examples
– no personal sharing required (chat only)

Mondays | 6:00–7:00 PM CT
April 13 • April 20 • April 27 • May 4

A DBT skills group for parents, partners, and other caregivers of people with Borderline Personality Disorder and other conditions impacting emotion regulation. Meets online and open to residents of Missouri.

03/15/2026

Our email is back up but the website is still down on the front end. Feel free to use this temporary link to our site for now!

We are committed to helping you develop coping skills to survive the emotional storms, regulate your mood, improve relationships, and grow your mindfulness skills.

03/13/2026

Our website and some emails are down currently. We are actively working to resolve our tech issues. Feel free to reach out to kristen@dbtozarks.org with any questions.

03/11/2026

Check out our current skill groups and schedule a call for us to talk more! Additional evening and weekend programming coming soon. https://www.dbtozarks.org/skillsgroups

03/10/2026

Did you know that DBT therapists aren’t meant to practice alone?

One of the core components of Dialectical Behavior Therapy is the consultation team, often described as “therapy for the therapist.” In the DBT model, clinicians meet weekly to strengthen their skills, stay aligned with the model, and support each other through complex clinical needs.

This structure exists because DBT is powerful work and providing it with fidelity requires ongoing consultation, collaboration, and accountability with other clinicians practicing the model. Research and training standards emphasize that consultation teams help therapists maintain motivation, strengthen their clinical decision-making, and stay grounded in the treatment framework.

Because many private practice therapists don’t have access to this kind of structured support, we offer a virtual DBT consultation team through DBT Hub (by DBT Ozarks), open to clinicians practicing DBT across the United States.

This team focuses on:
• strengthening adherence to the DBT model
• consultation using the DBT hierarchy
• brief didactic teaching to deepen clinical application
• collaborative support for therapists doing demanding clinical work

If you're a therapist working with emotionally dysregulated clients and want ongoing consultation grounded in the DBT model, you can learn more here:

🔗 https://www.dbtozarks.org/jointheteam

12/18/2025

Gentle Support for Seasonal Affective Disorder

Supporting Seasonal Affective Disorder doesn’t mean doing more.

Often, it means:
• lowering expectations
• increasing warmth and light
• grounding the body
• slowing the pace
• practicing nonjudgmental awareness

Nature models this beautifully.

Plants don’t push through winter. They rest, conserve, and repair.

Humans are allowed to do the same.

Tomorrow I’ll share how we’re working with this idea in a small, plant-centered meditation.

12/17/2025

Signs of Seasonal Affective Disorder

Seasonal Affective Disorder doesn’t always look like sadness.

It often looks like:
• wanting to sleep more
• low motivation
• emotional flatness
• brain fog
• social withdrawal
• craving comfort

Many people judge themselves for these changes.

But winter affects the nervous system, not your worth or character.

Support starts with understanding. Understanding starts with self-compassion.