Inspiring Conversations with Nikki Winchester of Cincinnati Center for DBT

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nikki Winchester.

Hi Nikki, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Hi! My name is Dr. Nikki Winchester. I’m a licensed clinical psychologist and the Founder and CEO of Cincinnati Center for DBT. A lot of people ask me why I decided to pursue a career as a psychologist. I have always had a passion for connecting with and supporting people. In high school, it was always important to me to be there to listen to and support my friends, so much so that I kept my cell phone on and next to my bed every night in case someone needed me. Also, as I was growing up, I had big emotions and did not know how to skillfully cope with them. I’m very passionate about helping people when they are experiencing pain in life. I love to build authentic relationships with people and have found this to be essential to helping people in therapy. My dedication to building real relationships with my clients, combined with my desire to learn and teach emotional coping skills, brought me to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
For one, I started my practice during the pandemic in late March, 2020! That was a scary time to start my own business but what I didn’t realize is that soon clients would be needing our services more than ever. Additionally, I am the only person in my family to graduate high school, let alone go on to earn undergraduate and doctoral degrees. Given that many of my friends’ and peers’ parents and/or siblings had earned advanced degrees, I often had to work a lot harder and stay up a lot later to understand and master material because I did not have anyone who knew the ropes or could help me in my assignments or learning.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Cincinnati Center for DBT provides evidence-based, cognitive behavioral mental health treatment to adolescents and adults who experience borderline personality disorder (BPD), difficulty regulating emotions, suicidal and self-harming behaviors, substance use, PTSD, depression, anxiety, psychosis and severe mental illness, and difficulty with life transitions. We specialize in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), the gold-standard, evidence-based treatment for individuals with chronic suicidal behaviors and difficulty regulating their emotions. We pride ourselves in providing DBT that is adherent to the model developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan. Although lots of clinicians advertise themselves as doing DBT, most have not undertaken the rigorous training and supervision necessary to provide DBT adherently. I am a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician™ and there are only approximately 350 of us globally – six in Ohio. This means that I have been deemed by top experts to provide DBT adherently. When seeking DBT, it is critical to know exactly what adherent DBT looks like. Adherent DBT therapists will be involved in all four modes of DBT: individual DBT sessions, DBT skills training group, skills phone coaching, and the therapist consultation team. Individual DBT sessions include a DBT diary card, where clients track daily urges, behaviors, and goals – this diary card is used to make the session agenda in individual therapy. Clients engage in DBT skills training group with two co-facilitators for approximately six months, where they learn the skills of mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. At our practice, DBT clients have 24/7 access to their own therapist so that they can get help applying DBT skills in their lives outside of sessions. It is very uncommon for therapists to be readily available to their clients outside of sessions, and when they are they usually enforce a 24-hour response time and they might have some sort of on-call rotation with other therapists. Not us! Our clients get to speak with their actual therapist, usually within two-hours or less of their phone call. Finally, we are a community of therapists treating a community of clients. Our therapists attend a weekly DBT consultation team meeting to get support in providing DBT adherently.
We are very proud of our ability to provide adherent DBT to our clients. Clients know that they are getting what they are paying for when they come to us.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is effectively reducing suffering. We teach clients skills to reduce their suffering. We are also focused on helping them build a life that they experience as worth living. Finally, our ultimate goal is to teach them to become their own best therapist. We work hard to teach our clients the skills and techniques needed to navigate life so that they do not need to be in therapy forever.

Pricing:

• $250-$300 90-minute initial intake assessment
• $150-$200 individual therapy sessions (includes 24/7 phone coaching for DBT clients)
• $90 for each two-hour DBT skills training group with two therapists
• Free 15-minute phone consultation to see if we are a good fit

Contact Info:

• Email: info@cincinnaticenterfordbt.com
• Website: https://www.cincinnaticenterfordbt.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cincinnaticenterfordbt/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CincinnatiCenterforDBT/
• Other: 513-268-8306

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