Te Whare Mahana offers New Zealand’s only national residential Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) programme.  Situated in Golden Bay, Nelson Tasman, this internationally renowned programme is for people experiencing frequent high levels of distress and have had little success from hospital and community treatments.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy is an intensive behavioural treatment approach, helping people work through complex histories and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and learn new skills for managing relationships and coping with distress.  The well-established treatment model was developed by American psychologist Marsha M. Linehan as a better way of treating people with Borderline Personality Disorder and chronic self-harm/suicidal behaviours.  DBT is now routinely used to treat a wide range of different and co-occurring mental health problems, including anxiety and depression.

DBT emphasises the learning and refinement of skills to help regulate emotions, change thinking patterns associated with problems in daily living and reduce misery and distress.  DBT incorporates the acquisition of skills to assist residents to improve interpersonal effectiveness and their quality of life.