Self-Harm & Suicidality Treatment in Denver
If you're hurting yourself or thinking about ending your life, you're not broken and you're not alone — and this is treatable. DBT was built for exactly this, and recovery is real.
In crisis right now, or worried about your safety?
Please reach out immediately — these lines are free, confidential, and available 24/7. If you're in immediate danger, call 911.
FRTC provides outpatient therapy — we're not an emergency or crisis service. If you need help in the moment, the lines above are the fastest way to reach someone right now.
Self-Harm & Suicidality Treatment in Denver
Front Range Treatment Center provides compassionate, evidence-based treatment for self-harm and suicidal thoughts using Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) — the approach developed specifically to reduce both. Self-harm and suicidal thinking are far more common than most people realize, and they respond to treatment. Our Denver clinicians help you build skills to get through crisis moments safely, lower the emotional pain underneath, and rebuild a life that feels worth staying for. We see clients in person at our Greenwood Village office in the Denver Tech Center and by secure video across Colorado, starting with a free consultation.
You're Not Alone, and This Is Treatable
If you hurt yourself to cope, or you've been having thoughts that you'd be better off gone, it can feel like something is fundamentally wrong with you. It isn't. Self-harm is usually a way of managing pain that's become unbearable, and suicidal thoughts are a signal of how much pain you're carrying and how few options feel available — not a character flaw, and not a life sentence.
Both are far more common than people talk about, and — this is the part that matters most — both get better with the right treatment. The goal of therapy here isn't just to stop a behavior. It's to reduce the pain that drives it and to widen your options until staying, and living, feels possible again.
Why DBT
Dialectical Behavior Therapy was developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan specifically for people struggling with chronic suicidality and self-harm — and it remains the treatment with the strongest evidence for reducing both, along with the hospitalizations that often come with them.
It works through four things at once: distress tolerance skills to survive a crisis moment without self-harm, emotion regulation to lower the intensity and frequency of the pain, mindfulness to create space between an urge and an action, and interpersonal effectiveness for the relationship strain that so often feeds these struggles. Comprehensive DBT also includes phone coaching — access to skills support between sessions, in the exact moments urges tend to peak. That between-session support is a core part of why DBT reduces self-harm, and it's built into our comprehensive program.
When to Reach Out
You don't need to be in crisis to deserve support. Consider reaching out if you recognize any of these:
- Hurting yourself on purpose to cope with overwhelming feelings
- Urges to self-harm that are hard to resist
- Recurring thoughts that you'd be better off gone
- Feeling trapped, like a burden, or that the pain won't end
- Using self-harm to feel something, or to feel less
- Hiding injuries, urges, or thoughts from people close to you
- Past attempts, or a recent increase in the intensity of these thoughts
If these thoughts feel urgent right now, or you're thinking about acting on them, please use the crisis lines above or call 988 — that's what they're there for.
How We Treat Self-Harm & Suicidality
These struggles are treated through DBT — the model built for them. These are the paths we'd consider with you, matched to your situation and level of need.
Adult DBT Program
The full Linehan model — individual therapy, skills group, and phone coaching. The most thorough, best-evidenced route for self-harm and chronic suicidality.
Learn more →Teen DBT
Self-harm is especially common in adolescence. Teen DBT teaches the same skills in an age-appropriate format, with the family involved.
Learn more →DBT Skills Classes
Skills-only track covering distress tolerance and emotion regulation — the crisis-survival skills, without committing to the full program.
Learn more →BPD Treatment
When self-harm and suicidality sit within broader emotional instability, comprehensive DBT for borderline personality is the gold-standard fit.
Learn more →
“The goal of treatment is not simply to keep someone alive. It is to help them build a life experienced as worth living.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Is self-harm the same as being suicidal?
Does having suicidal thoughts mean I'll act on them?
Why DBT for self-harm and suicidality?
If I tell my therapist about these thoughts, will I be hospitalized?
Is outpatient therapy enough, or do I need a higher level of care?
What about teens who self-harm?
Can I do this online?
Who you'll be working with.
Licensed clinicians, led by a Certified DBT Clinician™. We meet weekly as a consultation team so every client gets the collective expertise — not one therapist working alone.
Dr. Jenell Effinger, Ph.D.
Clinical Director
Tanner Oliver, LCSW
General Manager
Dr. Rachel Grace, Psy.D.
Teen Program & Assessment Director
Kara Clapp, MFT-C, LPCC
Parent Coordinator
Emily Warner, LPCC
DBT/CBT Therapist
Sarah Gordis, LCSW
DBT/CBT Therapist
Emily Burrup, LSW
DBT/CBT Therapist
Mia Colombo, M.A., LPCC
DBT/CBT TherapistReaching Out Is a Strong First Step
A free consultation is low-pressure and confidential. If you're in crisis right now, please call or text 988 — otherwise, we're here when you're ready.