Clinic Director
Vibh Forsythe Cox, Ph.D. (she/her)
Clinical Associate Professor, Clinical Program and Director of the Marsha M. Linehan Dialectical Behavior Therapy Clinic
Dr. Vibh Forsythe Cox is a Clinical Associate Professor and the Clinical Director of the Marsha M. Linehan Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Clinic, a specialty clinic within the Psychological Services Center at the University of Washington. She is a DBT-Linehan Board Certified Clinician, and a board member of the International Society for Improvement and Teaching of DBT.
She teaches courses related to the delivery of evidence-based treatment, particularly as it applies to clients at risk of suicide or who struggle with self-harm. Dr. Forsythe Cox provides consultation and supervision to advanced graduate students providing therapy in the clinic and oversees the functioning of our comprehensive DBT program. In addition to her work at this clinic, Dr. Forsythe Cox is a trainer and consultant for Behavioral Tech, LLC (BTECH) the training company founded by Dr. Linehan, Professor Emeritus of Psychology.
Why I got into DBT:
There are people who are in so much emotional suffering that they start to see ending their lives as the only solution. As I studied evidence-based treatments in my graduate training, I learned that there was an effective, compassionate treatment that could help people gain the skills to build lives that were no longer filled with suffering. I learned that even though this treatment existed, it was incredibly difficult for people to access. I decided that not only did I want to learn to deliver this treatment, but I also wanted to help others learn as well.
Favorite Skill:
Describing emotions. Once a person learns to accurately identify and label their emotional experience and understand what emotions do for us as human beings, emotions become easier to manage, communication gets clearer, and it becomes so much easier for us to get our important needs met. Learning to label emotions has changed my life and helped me change other people’s lives, too.
Treatment Provided:
Currently I support treatment delivery by providing supervision and consultation. Not only do I consult with our therapists regularly, I also consult with their supervisors, and provide specific coaching on more challenging cases.
Although some of our advanced therapists will be directly supervised by Dr. Forsythe Cox, she carries a small caseload and is not personally accepting new clients at this time.
DBT Clinic Therapists
Kate Conroy
Kara Dastrup
Sarah Gobrial
Diana Kwon
Emma PeConga
Lisa Shimomaeda
Lauren Smith
Michele Smith
Frank Song
Administrative Staff
Clinic Coordinator
The MML DBT Clinic Coordinator is an advanced clinical psychology graduate student trained to take calls from prospective DBT Clinic clients. The clinic coordinator can be reached at DBTClinic@UW.edu or by leaving a voicemail at (206) 685-3295.
PSTC Staff
The administrative staff from the Main Psychological Services and Training Clinic provide support to the DBT Clinic, as well.