DBT Teams

Jennifer H. R. Sayrs, PhD, ABPP, has served as a research therapist on three of Marsha Linehan's dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) clinical trials and as DBT adherence coder on several trials. As a trainer for Behavioral Tech, she provides a wide range of DBT workshops in the United States and around the world. She is Director of the DBT Center at the Evidence Based Treatment Centers of Seattle (EBTCS), where she provides DBT to adults, adolescents, and families. The DBT Center was one of the first DBT teams in the nation to be awarded Program Certification by the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification. Dr. Sayrs is also a founding member and Executive Director of EBTCS. She is a board member of the American Board of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology, a specialty board of the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP, the developer of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Director Emeritus of the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics at the University of Washington. Before retiring in 2019, she devoted her career to developing and evaluating evidence-based treatments for populations with high suicide risk and multiple, severe mental disorders. Dr. Linehan is the 2025 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Her contributions to suicide research and clinical psychology research have also been recognized with the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology, the Career/Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology from the American Psychological Foundation, and the James McKeen Cattell Award from the Association for Psychological Science. In her honor, the American Association of Suicidology created the Marsha Linehan Award for Outstanding Research in the Treatment of Suicidal Behavior. Dr. Linehan was featured in TIME Great Scientists: The Geniuses and Visionaries Who Transformed Our World. She is founder of the Linehan Institute and is a Zen master.