I don't know about the ones you've seen through advertisements, but in my wife's and my search for a treatment center for her, we found the following things:
- Behavioral Tech provides a website with a location search for DBT programs (I'm assuming you're looking at DBT programs as that's usually the recommended therapy). See link here: www.behavioraltech.org/resources/crd.cfm BehavioralTech handles training for DBT and provides a lot of information about it. I may be wrong, but I think it was started by the person who came up with it. The disclaimer states that they do not endorse any program, so you need to be informed about DBT and what such programs provide, which leads to... .
- Any "good" DBT program should provide the following:
- - A comprehensive structured program that lasts a long time. My wife was told that the program that she's waiting for will be a series of several 6-8 month sections that will take 18 months to 2 years to complete.
- - There should be at least 2 sessions every week, one will be a one-on-one with a therapist the other will be a longer meeting in a group setting.
- - A "good" program will also provide a 24 hour emergency hotline that the patient can call should an emotional dysregulation get so bad that they need immediate help.
So, while there are two programs listed in the area that we are in, we quickly saw that only one really went with the full program. The other seemed to just be 6 months of regular therapy, didn't provide the hotline and didn't really seem to follow the full program. Do your research! It will take a lot of calls to get the info you need to choose the right program for you.