Experiences of novice DBT therapists

The thesis focuses on the experiences of novice DBT therapists. The primary aim is to understand how novice DBT therapists experience delivering a DBT program. The theoretical section first presents dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), followed by a summary of findings on the experiences of novice therapists and DBT therapists, and finally introduces the generic descriptive-interpretive qualitative research (GDI-QR). The empirical section aimed to understand how novice DBT therapists experience delivering a DBT program, how their experiences change over time, and which facilitating and hindering factors influence their perceived competence. Secondary aims were to provide feedback on the pilot implementation of the Gradient project and to assess the applicability of GDI-QR. GDI-QR method was used for the study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with DBT therapists participating in the Gradient project at the National Institute of Mental Health (NÚDZ). From interviews with seven participants (n = 7), 18 categories were identified, which were organized into five domains: (1) Experiences, (2) Supportive factors of perceived competence, (3) Challenging yet supportive factors of perceived competence, (4) Facilitators of transforming challenging experiences into supportive experiences,...