DBT Clinics Australia & Wise Mind Retreats: Taking Therapy Beyond the Consulting Room

For more than 25 years, our clinical services have continued to evolve in response to what we have learned from our clients, clinicians, research and changing models of mental health care.

Our clinical journey began with Essentia Health, established in Victoria in 1999, providing psychology, counselling and specialist mental health services. Over the years, our work increasingly developed a specialist focus in areas including Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), trauma-informed treatment, Stabilisation-Based Therapy and, more recently, Radically Open DBT (RO DBT).

Today, that specialist clinical work continues through DBT Clinics Australia, with an increasing emphasis on accessible online treatment and our growing relationship with Wise Mind Retreats in Phuket, Thailand.

While the way and location in which we provide services has changed considerably since 1999, our underlying goal remains the same: providing thoughtful, evidence-informed mental health care that helps people translate what they learn in therapy into meaningful change in their lives.

From Essentia Health to DBT Clinics Australia

Essentia Health has been an important part of our clinical history.

Established in 1999, Essentia Health brought together psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors and other mental health professionals providing services to individuals, couples and families.

As our clinical work evolved, DBT became an increasingly important part of our identity. Our clinicians developed specialist expertise in working with emotion dysregulation, complex presentations, trauma and behavioural difficulties.

Over time, our work expanded beyond traditional private practice.

We developed DBT programs, skills groups, professional training, online services and specialist clinical programs. Our work also expanded geographically, with clients and clinicians increasingly participating from across Australia and internationally.

DBT Clinics Australia represents the next stage of that evolution.

It allows us to maintain our history and clinical experience while developing a clearer specialist identity around DBT, RO DBT, trauma-informed approaches and related behavioural therapies.

We remain proud of the foundations established through Essentia Health since 1999 and the many clinicians, clients, families and referrers who have contributed to that journey.

Our Relationship With Wise Mind Retreats

Wise Mind Retreats developed from an idea that has increasingly influenced our clinical work:

Therapy should ultimately help people live differently—not simply understand themselves better while sitting in a consulting room.

DBT Clinics Australia provides specialist clinical assessment, therapy, consultation and psychological skills programs.

Wise Mind Retreats provides something different.

Located in Phuket, Thailand, the retreat environment creates an opportunity for participants to dedicate time to learning, reflection, behavioural change, mindfulness and practising psychological skills within everyday life.

The two services are therefore closely connected while serving different purposes.

Our relationship allows us to combine the clinical structure of specialist psychological treatment with the experiential opportunities of a retreat environment.

Taking Therapy Beyond the Consulting Room

Traditional psychological therapy usually takes place within a very particular structure.

A person meets with their therapist for approximately an hour and then returns to their everyday environment.

Important things can happen during that hour.

People can understand patterns, learn skills, explore difficult experiences, identify goals and develop new ways of responding.

However, ultimately, change happens outside the consulting room.

A person has to use those skills when they become distressed.

They have to communicate differently during a difficult conversation.

They may need to tolerate uncertainty, approach something they would normally avoid, express vulnerability, establish boundaries or recognise an old behavioural pattern before automatically responding to it.

This is where the relationship between DBT Clinics Australia and Wise Mind Retreats becomes particularly valuable.

A retreat creates opportunities not only to talk about change, but also to experience and practise it.

Why Phuket?

Phuket provides an environment very different from a traditional mental health clinic.

Participants can temporarily step away from some of the routines and environmental cues of everyday life while remaining engaged in a real community.

The purpose is not to escape life.

It is to create space to examine how we live it.

Depending upon the program, a participant’s time in Phuket may incorporate individual sessions, psychological skills development, mindfulness, exercise, self-paced learning, journaling and self-reflection alongside ordinary daily activities.

These experiences provide opportunities to notice behavioural patterns as they occur and practise new responses.

Sometimes the most valuable therapeutic experience may not occur during a formal therapy session at all.

It may occur when someone does something independently, tolerates discomfort without avoiding it, communicates openly, joins an activity despite feeling uncomfortable, asks for help, establishes a boundary or discovers that they are capable of something they previously believed they could not do.

The Meaning of Wise Mind

The name Wise Mind Retreats reflects our DBT foundations.

In DBT, Wise Mind refers to bringing together emotion and reason—recognising our emotional experience while also drawing upon knowledge, perspective and what is effective.

For our team, Wise Mind is not simply something to discuss during a DBT skills class.

It is something to practise.

Sometimes Wise Mind involves slowing down rather than reacting.

Sometimes it involves accepting something we cannot change.

Sometimes it means recognising that something does need to change.

It can involve asking for help, approaching rather than avoiding, being more open with another person or tolerating the discomfort that accompanies doing something differently.

The retreat environment provides repeated opportunities to practise these principles.

Connecting Online Therapy With In-Person Experiences

The increasing delivery of DBT Clinics Australia services online creates another opportunity.

Rather than viewing online therapy and face-to-face treatment as competing approaches, we can combine their strengths.

For appropriate participants, the relationship may involve preparation and assessment online before travelling to Phuket, more intensive experiential work during a retreat, and online support following their return home.

We think of this process as:

Prepare → Learn → Experience → Practise → Return → Consolidate

The retreat therefore does not need to exist as an isolated experience.

It can form part of a broader continuum of care.

Online treatment provides accessibility and continuity.

The retreat provides time, space and opportunities for more intensive experiential learning.

Everyday life provides the environment in which those changes ultimately need to continue.

Different People Need Different Levels of Support

Wise Mind Retreats is not based on the assumption that everyone requires intensive therapy.

Some participants may attend within a structured therapeutic program involving individual clinical sessions, skills development and clearly identified treatment goals.

Others may participate in a more self-paced retreat, using the environment to focus on psychological skills, mindfulness, exercise, reflection and wellbeing while maintaining greater independence.

The appropriate level of structure depends upon the individual, their goals and their clinical needs.

Retreat participation is also not intended to replace necessary psychiatric, medical or ongoing psychological care. Careful consideration of suitability remains an important part of our approach.

More Than 25 Years of Evolution

There is a clear connection between where our clinical services began in 1999 through Essentia Health and where we are heading today through DBT Clinics Australia and Wise Mind Retreats.

The settings have changed.

Our understanding has developed.

Technology has allowed us to work with people far beyond the geographical boundaries of a Melbourne consulting room.

Our clinical approaches have expanded.

But many of the principles that guided our early work remain important today.

We believe in evidence-informed treatment.

We believe in the importance of a strong therapeutic relationship.

We believe people deserve to understand the patterns influencing their lives.

We believe psychological skills can be learned.

And importantly, we believe therapy needs to translate into life.

The Next Chapter

As DBT Clinics Australia continues to develop, our relationship with Wise Mind Retreats will become an increasingly important part of our model.

Our goal is not simply to replace the physical consulting room with an online appointment.

We want to think more broadly about where and how therapeutic change can occur.

DBT Clinics Australia provides specialist clinical knowledge, assessment, therapy and continuity of care.

Wise Mind Retreats provides an environment in which learning can become more experiential.

Together, they allow us to explore a model of care that can move between the online therapy room, an intensive retreat environment and, most importantly, the person’s everyday life.

From the establishment of Essentia Health in 1999, through the growth of our DBT programs and the development of DBT Clinics Australia, our services have continued to evolve.

Wise Mind Retreats represents the next part of that evolution—taking what we have learned over more than 25 years of clinical practice and creating new opportunities for people not simply to understand change, but to practise and live it.

Dr Peter King
On behalf of the DBT Clinics Australia team
Clinical & Academic Lead
Asia Pacific DBT Institute