CBC Team

Dr. Kelly Graling, Clinical Director, supports the Co-Founders, staff, and clients to best access CBC services and helps manage daily operations. Formerly Director of Extramural Consultation and Training, Dr. Graling continues to coordinate, train and consult to numerous school districts, agencies, and organizations implementing CBT and DBT on a local, national, and international level. Dr. Graling is an expert in DBT. She is a board-certified clinician by the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification. Dr. Graling supervises CBC staff, leads DBT skills training groups and conducts individual CBT and DBT therapies. She has received intensive training in both CBT and DBT. She specializes in the treatment of mood disorders, trauma and anxiety disorders, interpersonal difficulties, as well as personality disorders, suicidal and non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors.

Prior to joining the staff at CBC, Dr. Graling was the Training Director at CBT California (in the Los Angeles area). Dr. Graling initiated and implemented the Adolescent DBT program at the Beverly Hills office of CBT California. She also provided CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP, a treatment for chronic depression) to individuals. Dr. Graling trained and supervised clinical psychology graduate students at UCLA’s Psychology Clinic and mental health professionals internationally in CBT and DBT. Dr. Graling completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she wrote her dissertation on the role of emotion dysregulation in self-harm behaviors and interpersonal problems. She also completed an APA accredited internship at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, gaining further expertise in CBT, severe mental illness, and substance use disorders. During internship, Dr. Graling received further training in adolescent DBT with Dr. Alec Miller. Dr. Graling’s research interests include: implementation of DBT in schools and organizations, emotion regulation and interpersonal functioning in borderline personality disorder, adolescent development, and gender and sexuality. She has published peer-reviewed papers, book chapters and given presentations on emotion dysregulation, sexuality, and borderline personality disorder, as well as adapting DBT for school settings.

Dr. Graling was the Co-Chair of the International Society for the Improvement and Training of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (ISITDBT) in 2016 and 2017. She is currently serving on the board as treasurer and program committee for ISITDBT. She is also a member of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy.