Kyla Johnston and Natasha Smikles met while working at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre as psychiatric nurses. It was there they learned they shared a similar passion: DBT—or Dialectical Behaviour Therapy.
“DBT is very specific to helping people learn how to regulate emotions,” Natasha said. “So, we work a lot with people who have personality disorders—specifically borderline personality disorder—and people who meet criteria for anxiety, depression, and PTSD.”
DBT is a comprehensive approach to addressing goals, enhancing skills, and creating a more positive future. It focuses primarily on mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.
“Essentially, the way this program is structured is that clients have to sign on for a minimum of six months,” Natasha said. “And that’s for them to see an individual therapist once a week, then they also learn coping skills in a group setting that’s an additional one day a week, so it’s a very intensive therapy.”
The pair founded DBT Winnipeg in 2017, a program that has grown to feature a team of experienced group leaders and individual therapists who are comprehensively trained in DBT and have participated in training sessions with expert DBT researchers, including Dr. Marsha Linehan, the founder of DBT.
In 2019, they moved their program into 70 Arthur Street in the heart of Winnipeg’s Exchange District.
“It started with just Natasha and I,” Kyla said. “We needed more room for our program and then we kind of set it up like an office sharing space for mental health clinicians with the idea of collaborative care.”
Kyla and Natasha rented out offices to mental health professionals to use for their own practices, creating a multidisciplinary group of clinicians sharing the same space, while continuing to grow DBT Winnipeg, which now has 5 full-time clinicians and 2 part-time students.
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The initial space included five offices, a group space, and a conference room, and has since expanded to include another four offices to accommodate their growing team.
“Right after we’d moved in, the pandemic hit and everything shut down,” Natasha said. “So, we were like, ‘are we ever going to have a business now?’ And we had just finished the first renos.”
Back then, the space felt like a lot more than they needed.
“Oh my gosh, when we first moved in, we were like, ‘this is way too big for us! There’s literally just two of us and we have all this space!” Kyla said. “But we were just always busy, and we’ve kept growing.”
The duo did not anticipate just how quickly their practice—and team—would grow.
“We’re renovating again right now,” Kyla said. “That’ll be another five offices and a really large group space and a kitchen.”
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To expand for the third time, they worked with WeMB to secure financing.
“I’m a psychiatric nurse; I have no business training!” said Kyla. “So, writing a business plan was a huge learning curve. They didn’t teach us anything about that in school.”
The pair worked closely with their WeMB Business Advisor before they received the business loan for their renovations earlier this year.
“The information we were given was highly detailed,” Natasha said. “[Our advisor] had a very good idea of what we required for this expansion.”
The rapid growth of their business is a true testament to the evident need for the type of programming they offer.
“Often, the people who are starting treatment have already tried different types of therapies, medications, and other things, and they’re feeling really hopeless,” Kyla said. “So, seeing someone when they’re at that low point and then seeing them through 6 months to a year of treatment and their lives look so different at the end of it, you can carry that hope for your clients because you’ve seen it work for so many people.”
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A substantial element of the latest renovations is a large group room (over 700 square feet) that will be used for bigger workshops, hosting events, and more.
“Even if clinicians have an office elsewhere but they wanted to run a bigger program, they could rent out that space,” Natasha said. “Plus, we’ll have three more offices to fill with practitioners soon.”
As for DBT Winnipeg, it’s showing no signs of slowing down.
“Access to comprehensive DBT treatment programs in Manitoba is limited,” Natasha said. “Its whole goal is to help you to build a life worth living. So, it takes a lot of skills and a lot of effort and time working with the clients to help them to get there. That’s really important to us.”
Learn more about the Mental Health Collective and DBT Winnipeg at dbtwinnipeg.com!