Pascale Dellefield

Dialectical Behavior (DBT)

Treatment Approach & Areas of Focus I utilize CBT- and DBT-informed approaches, with a focus on emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness. My approach is compassionate, collaborative, practical, and tailored to the unique needs of each client rather than using a “one-size-fits-all” model. With 22 years of experience providing Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) in individual, coaching, and group settings, I offer a skills-based approach to helping clients navigate emotional challenges, trauma, relationship difficulties, and life transitions. DBT is especially effective for building emotion regulation, mindfulness, distress tolerance, and healthier interpersonal relationship patterns. I work with adults across all life stages—from young adults navigating identity development, independence, emotional dysregulation, and life transitions to older adults managing relationships, grief, family dynamics, and major life changes. I support clients struggling with self-harm behaviors, coping difficulties, and emotional overwhelm by helping them build healthier coping strategies, emotional awareness, and help-seeking behaviors. I have experience supporting adults with ADHD, including challenges related to executive functioning, organization, emotional regulation, communication, and relationship dynamics. When appropriate, I collaborate with psychiatry regarding medication evaluation and continuity of care. I work with couples across a variety of relationship stages and structures, including strengthening partnerships, improving communication, navigating separation or transition, clarifying emotional needs and values, and supporting relational alignment. I provide an affirming and nonjudgmental environment for diverse relationship structures, including monogamous, consensual non-monogamous, and mixed-orientation relationships. My work emphasizes developing self-protective and self-empowering patterns while improving emotional insight, communication, and relational functioning. I strive to help clients create greater stability, resilience, authenticity, and self-understanding in their daily lives. I also have experience working with mood disorders, including Bipolar Disorder, and provide psychoeducation, communication support, emotional regulation strategies, and collaborative relapse-prevention planning. In addition, I specialize in intergenerational family dynamics and high-conflict co-parenting situations, including cases involving family court systems. I help parents reduce reactivity, avoid triangulation, maintain child-centered approaches, and develop structured responses to challenging child behaviors in order to support greater emotional stability across households. My goal is to provide a safe, collaborative, and supportive therapeutic environment where clients feel genuinely heard, understood, and empowered to create meaningful and lasting change.

Eclectic

I bring a rich and diverse clinical background with over two decades of experience working across a wide range of mental health settings and populations. Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of supporting individuals facing crisis, trauma, severe mental illness, relationship challenges, and major life transitions. My professional experience includes working in crisis management, outpatient treatment, crisis houses, hospital settings, and briefly in a locked psychiatric facility. I have worked extensively with individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts, substance dependence, and serious mental health conditions including Bipolar I Disorder, Schizoaffective Disorder, and Schizophrenia. I also worked with homeless individuals struggling with significant psychiatric challenges and instability. In addition, I have supported military families during deployments, helping spouses and children cope with stress, separation, and emotional adjustment. My experience also includes working with domestic violence cases, individuals involved in the legal system, and male clients in a jail setting who were deemed incompetent to stand trial. I have extensive experience working with clients diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, providing both Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) groups and individual DBT coaching focused on emotion regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness. I also worked in managed care authorizing services for Medi-Cal clients, giving me additional insight into navigating systems of care and accessing appropriate treatment resources. Currently, I provide telehealth therapy to higher-functioning individuals and couples seeking support with emotional growth, relationships, coping skills, life stressors, and personal healing. I genuinely enjoy my work and feel honored to walk alongside clients as they build greater resilience, insight, and meaningful change in their lives.

Mindfulness-Based Therapy

Clients often describe my approach as compassionate, authentic, and deeply attentive. I do not believe in a “cookie-cutter” approach to therapy. I strive to truly understand each client as an individual and create treatment approaches that are tailored to their unique personality, experiences, strengths, and goals. My clients frequently share that they feel genuinely heard, understood, and emotionally safe in our work together. I value deep listening and believe that meaningful therapeutic change happens within a strong and trusting relationship. This allows me to work creatively and intuitively, often developing interventions that are highly personalized and responsive to what is emerging in the moment during sessions. In addition to the work done during sessions, I spend time reflecting thoughtfully between appointments and often return with additional insights, perspectives, or strategies that may help clients move forward more effectively toward their goals. My intention is to provide therapy that feels collaborative, dynamic, insightful, and deeply human.

Multicultural

I was raised across three countries and bring a multicultural perspective to my work and worldview. In addition to English, I speak Lebanese Arabic and French, and I also speak some Spanish. While I conduct therapy sessions exclusively in English, my multilingual and multicultural background helps me connect with clients from diverse cultural, ethnic, and international backgrounds. I lived in Lebanon during times of war, spent part of my life in France, and eventually made my home in the United States. The influence of all three countries has shaped my thinking, values, personality, and perspective on resilience, identity, family, and human experience. Clients may also notice traces of these experiences in my accent and communication style. Because of my own multicultural journey, I have a deep appreciation for each client’s personal history, country of origin, traditions, beliefs, family dynamics, and life story. I value creating a space where clients feel respected, understood, and welcomed in sharing the experiences and cultural influences that have shaped who they are.

Family Therapy

Throughout my career, I have worked with families facing a wide range of challenges, transitions, and goals. I have supported military families coping with the absence of a deployed family member, helped families navigate domestic violence situations and military chains of command, and assisted families reintegrating loved ones living with chronic, severe, and persistent mental illness. I have also worked with blended families seeking to establish healthier structure, communication, boundaries, and stability within the home. Many families come to therapy carrying painful histories, unresolved conflicts, or long-standing emotional wounds, and I help create a space where difficult but meaningful conversations can take place safely and constructively. I approach family therapy using a variety of treatment models and tailor my work to the unique dynamics and needs of each family system. I believe family therapy can be a powerful process for healing old wounds, improving communication, strengthening relationships, increasing accountability, and helping individuals reconnect with their authentic selves while moving forward toward greater peace and emotional well-being.