DBT Skills Training is the mode of treatment in comprehensive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) in which clients learn and practice new coping skills. This two-day training covers the fundamentals of facilitating a skills training group including exposure to the skills themselves. Participants learn how to set up a group, define participant criteria, set group goals and guidelines, model effective teaching methods, learn the roles of co-leadership, identify and solve common problems in skills groups, give meaningful homework assignments, and review homework assignments in a way that promotes active engagement with different client populations and settings. The participants will be provided with a copy of the DBT Skills Training Modules adapted by Nancy Gordon from the original DBT Skills Training Modules by Marsha Linehan in 1993 which also incorporates up to date skills handouts and worksheets.

This course requires some basic knowledge of the DBT model of treatment since Skills Group is only one of 4 modes of that treatment. It is Part 2 of the Core DBT Training.  Participants are expected to be familiar with DBT treatment.  This training assumes that participants already have a working knowledge of the concepts and strategies of the treatment and want to focus on increasing their competence in teaching DBT skills.  At a minimum, participants should have attended a 1 or 2 Day DBT training or read Linehan’s (1993) Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder prior to attending the training.  It is also recommended that participants purchase and bring the  2nd Edition DBT Skills Training Manual and Worksheets by Linehan or the DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents by Rathus and Miller.

This training is intended for mental health professionals who:

  • Have some experience, a working knowledge, and/or prior training in DBT Skills.
  • Want to learn to teach or to improve their teaching of DBT Skills to clients.

 

Learning Objectives:
1. Participants will recount 2 research outcomes demonstrating the effectiveness of DBT Skills
2. Participants will teach the Biosocial Theory of Borderline Personality Disorder
3. Participants will teach the concept of Dialectics
4. Participants will demonstrate how to apply the interventions of a Diary Card and a Missing
Links into skills group
5. Participants will know the teaching points for the five modules of skills that are taught to clients
and their families
6. Participants will describe understand, practice and explain the role of mindfulness in DBT
7. Participants will know how to develop the structure and inclusion/exclusion criteria for group
8. Participants will develop skills to manage difficult client behaviors in groups
9. Participants will share how they can incorporate DBT skills training into their own practice

DBT Skills Group Virtual Training (15 CE’s)