WhatsApp Us Now
United States 5/11/2026Southside DBT, a mental health practice based in the South Metro Atlanta area, has announced the launch of its “Life Worth Living” initiative, a structured effort to expand access to board-certified Dialectical Behavior Therapy services across Georgia. The initiative is designed to reach individuals who have struggled to find specialized, evidence-based DBT care in their communities and to raise awareness of what genuine, adherent DBT treatment looks like and what it can do for people dealing with severe emotional dysregulation, suicidality, self-harm, and related conditions.
The practice, led by Kelly Pinnick, a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification Certified Clinician, offers telehealth services to residents across multiple Georgia cities including Atlanta, Macon, Columbus, and Savannah. The “Life Worth Living” initiative formalizes Southside DBT’s commitment to making this level of specialized care available to Georgians who need it, regardless of where in the state they are located.
About the Initiative
The “Life Worth Living” initiative takes its name from one of the foundational concepts in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. In DBT, building a life worth living is not a slogan. It is a clinical goal, one that guides the structure of treatment from the first session through the full course of care. The initiative is built around three areas of focus: expanding access to board-certified DBT care through telehealth, increasing public awareness of what DBT actually involves and who it is designed to help, and reducing the stigma that continues to prevent many Georgians from seeking mental health treatment.
“There are a lot of people in Georgia who are struggling with emotional regulation, with suicidal thoughts, with patterns of behavior they cannot seem to break, and who either do not know that DBT exists or cannot find a provider who is actually trained in the full model,” said Kelly Pinnick. “This initiative is about closing that gap. It is about making sure people know there is a treatment that works, that it is available to them, and that they do not have to stay where they are.”
Telehealth as the Foundation of Access
One of the structural realities of mental health care in Georgia is that specialized services are heavily concentrated in urban centers. Residents of rural areas, smaller cities, and communities without strong public transit infrastructure face significant barriers to accessing the kind of specialized care that conditions like borderline personality disorder, C-PTSD, and severe emotional dysregulation require.
Southside DBT’s telehealth model directly addresses this. By delivering care remotely, the practice is able to reach clients in Macon, Columbus, Savannah, and surrounding areas who would otherwise have limited or no access to a board-certified DBT clinician. The “Life Worth Living” initiative expands on this foundation by actively reaching out to communities across the state where awareness of DBT and access to trained providers has historically been limited.
What Board-Certified DBT Excellence Means in Practice
The DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician designation held by Kelly Pinnick is one of the most rigorous credentials available in the field of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. It requires demonstrated advanced training, supervised clinical hours, and a commitment to delivering all four components of standard DBT: individual therapy, skills training, phone coaching, and participation in a therapist consultation team.
This level of credential matters because the term DBT is widely used by practitioners who have varying levels of training in the model. Many therapists describe themselves as DBT-informed or say they incorporate DBT skills into their work, without delivering the full structured treatment that the model was designed around. For clients dealing with serious conditions, that distinction has real consequences.
“Being board-certified means I am held accountable to a standard that was set by the people who built this treatment,” said Pinnick. “My clients are not getting a modified version of DBT. They are getting the full model, delivered the way it was designed to be delivered. That is what the certification is there to ensure.”
The Consultation Team Component
As part of the practice’s commitment to standard DBT, Southside DBT operates with a therapist consultation team structure. This is a required component of adherent DBT that is often absent from practices claiming to offer the treatment. The consultation team is a group of DBT-trained clinicians who meet regularly to consult on cases, maintain adherence to the model, and provide the kind of peer accountability that protects both clients and clinicians.
For clients of Southside DBT, this means their therapist is not working in isolation. Clinical decisions are supported by a team structure that is built into the model itself, providing an additional layer of quality assurance that solo practice without consultation cannot replicate.
Addressing Mental Health Stigma in Georgia
A significant component of the “Life Worth Living” initiative is focused on mental health stigma, particularly in communities across Georgia where seeking therapy continues to carry social risk. The South has a long history of cultural narratives around self-reliance and managing difficulties privately. Those narratives have real effects on help-seeking behavior, and they disproportionately affect communities that are already underserved by the mental health system.
Southside DBT’s outreach efforts under this initiative include public education about what DBT is and who it helps, information about how telehealth works and what clients can expect, and direct communication about the insurance and private pay options available through the practice. The practice currently accepts Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, Cigna, and United Healthcare through Optum, and offers a private pay rate for clients whose insurance is not accepted.
“People deserve to know that asking for help is not weakness,” said Pinnick. “It is actually one of the harder things a person can do, and it is the right thing to do when you are struggling. The goal of this initiative is to make sure more people in Georgia feel like that option is available to them.”
Insurance & Access
Billing through the practice is managed via Headway, a platform that handles insurance verification, billing, and payment processing so that the clinical relationship can remain focused on the work of treatment. Clients can verify their benefits and review their expected cost per session through the client portal before their first appointment.
For clients whose insurance is not accepted in-network, out-of-network benefits may apply, and the practice provides superbills through Headway that clients can submit to their insurance providers for possible reimbursement.
About Southside DBT
Southside DBT is a mental health practice based in South Metro Atlanta, Georgia, specializing in Dialectical Behavior Therapy. The practice is led by Kelly Pinnick, a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification Certified Clinician with over a decade of clinical experience. Southside DBT delivers individual therapy, skills training, phone coaching, and consultation team-supported care via telehealth to clients across Georgia, including Atlanta, Macon, Columbus, and Savannah. The practice accepts multiple insurance providers and offers private pay options.
This press release is intended for publication and distribution. For press inquiries, interview requests, or additional information, contact Kelly Pinnick directly at kelly@southsidedbt.com.
Contact:
Kelly Pinnick, DBT-Linehan Board Certified Clinician™ Southside DBT
Phone: (770) 880-2538
Website: www.southsidedbt.com
