FORTIFIED U DBT
live your best life
practice makes progress
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ABOUT SYRENE
SYRENE LAWAL, MSW, LICSW
Syrene received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Communication with an Emphasis in Public Relations from Brigham Young University and her Master’s in Social Work from Boston University. She has experience as a therapist using Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy across several levels of care. Her clinical training includes an intensive DBT foundational, DBT as applied to the treatment of couples and families, DBT Prolonged Exposure (DBT PE) for treating trauma and PTSD, Cognitive Behavior Therapy theory and practice, and Motivational Interviewing.
She has over 20 years of experience teaching educators and practitioners how to incorporate outcome research into clinical practice. Syrene has authored several textbooks, chapters and peer-reviewed articles, as well as presented on a national stage regarding effectively translating Evidence-Based Decision Making into practice.
She served as the Eastern Washington representative for the National Association of Social Worker’s Washington Chapter and as the co-chair of the membership engagement committee for several years. She was a clinical instructor at Washington State University, serving on the university’s Scholarly Project Committee from 2021 to 2025.
Services
Fortified U DBT is focused on our clients' needs and helping each individual learn skills to live their best life. Interpersonal effectiveness, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance skills are integral in balancing acceptance with change. We can help you improve your relationships, navigate conflict and manage stress more effectively. Contact us to get started!
Initial Consult
Free 15 minute consultation to discuss treatment options and needs.
Individual Therapy
50 minutes
Set goals, learn skills and live your best life. DBT focuses on balancing acceptance with change and improving relationship effectiveness, and core mindfulness while building strategies to maximize distress tolerance and regulate emotions.
Group Therapy
60-90 minutes
Learn each DBT skill in a fun, informative group setting. Mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance and emotion regulation are practiced and discussed with group members each week as you build skills to live your best life and make positive changes.
Skills Coaching
DBT offers skills coaching in the moment to help avoid a crisis. Ten to fifteen minutes of one on one discussion helps clients apply skills to real life conflict. This encourages clients to regulate emotions and tolerate distress to avoid making situations worse.
Radical Acceptance
Marsha Linehan
“Acceptance can transform but if you accept in order to transform, it is not acceptance. It is like loving. Love seeks no reward but when given freely comes back a hundredfold. He who loses his life finds it. He who accepts, changes.”