Hi Beauflow...

Normally, yes, you would do the group sessions once a week and see a DBT therapist to confirm/strengthen the thinking skills that you learn in groups. The groups really aren't like talk groups as much as study groups and they can be very expensive. A lot of T's do some DBT although not "formally" trained in DBT. It may be that your T will be doing some work out of the workbooks on specific chapters to help you with self-soothing skills or some other very helpful ideas to help you regulate some emotions so that she can work better with you in other ways as well. I do NOT know this for sure, I'm just speculating as I've heard of many therapist incorporating some of the aspects of DBT in an eclectic way with other processes to best help you...

Make sure and read Marsha Linehan's sight for best information and references as she is the one that developed the theory. I went through some DBT about 3 years ago and my T is sending me back now for some more. He is not trained by the institute but is very familiar with the techniques. The classes are like $170 each week and without insurance there is NO way I could afford them. If I remember, the classes go through the book and all the skills and then go through the whole process again and then take a break. That is like a 9 mo ??? process. I won't be doing the whole thing. No way my insurance even would cover that. A lot of DBT is helping again to reduct the emotional impact of thoughts and stuff by breaking some of the natural/reactive associations between thoughts or even memories and corresponding emotions and bringing them into mindfulness so that you sort of address them more logically rather than emotionally. I'm sure your websites can say it much better than I can.. I hope this helps just a little bit..I'm sure you will get lots of other answers as well..

Good luck to you and in your journey of healing..

WB