Join us on March 27th when Stephanie D. Stepp, PhD will present a Clinical Grand Rounds focusing on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). 

Dr. Stepp’s research focuses on developmental precursors, maintenance mechanisms, and outcomes associated with borderline personality disorder from early childhood through adulthood, as well as developing and evaluating assessment tools and psychosocial treatments for this disorder. Her longitudinal studies in this area have provided a growing body of evidence that a combination of emotional and interpersonal person-level vulnerabilities in the context of deleterious family environments may underlie the development and maintenance of this disorder over time. Dr. Stepp’s clinical expertise is the treatment of borderline personality disorder across the lifespan and within the family context utilizing Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Furthermore, she has examined the impact of adapting DBT to target parenting behaviors for use with mothers who have borderline personality disorder. Dr. Stepp’s current investigations probe DBT intervention targets utilizing a randomized longitudinal study design with the aim of revealing causal mechanisms in the development of borderline personality disorder.