St. Luke’s University Health Network has added a therapeutic component, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), to its Partial Hospitalization Program-Innovations, an outpatient group therapy program for those struggling with depression, anxiety, stress issues and other mental-health challenges.

Music therapy uses listening, singing and playing music and musical instruments to improve and maintain a patient’s mental health. Music therapy groups focus on the four main components of DBT: Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Distress Tolerance and Interpersonal Effectiveness.

Said Suzanne Makary, a music therapist at St. Luke’s, “DBT helps patients identify thinking patterns or emotions that contribute to their negative thoughts and helps them learn how to turn them around and make them manageable.”

DBT is incorporated in group skills training classes that are offered to those in need of help but not hospitalization.

The program includes educational classes on topics such as insomnia, diet, exercise and medication, and relaxation techniques. Groups also assist people with drug-alcohol issues learn about sobriety and how it interacts with overall emotional wellness.

The Partial Behavioral Health treatment program is held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday for about two weeks at the Eaton Avenue Behavioral Health Center. Groups have 10 or fewer patients in them.

Information, call the Partial Hospitalization Program-Innovations at 484-526-3838