Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Groups
What Can I expect when I come to Skills Class
• Skills classes are basically organized like a college class.
• Classes are now taught over zoom. We use the zoom break out rooms and other tools to engage participants fully.
• Just like in a college class you are expected to bring your DBT Skills Manual to every class and a notepad to take notes.
• We focus on attendance because every class counts. Please call if you are going to be late so we won’t worry or call you
unnecessarily. We will call if you are not there within 15 minutes of start time....
• Each class is divided into two 55 minute time periods with a 5-10 minute break in between. During break you can eat a snack, visit,
talk to the teachers and rest.
• The first period is homework review and help with applying the concepts of the previous class.
• The next section is new material.
• Material is taught through lecture, modeling and in-class practice. We attempt to find ways to reach each student and adapt our
teaching to the needs of the students.
• Materials are taught in 8-9 week modules.
• Each Module begins with two weeks of Mindfulness Curriculum followed by one of the additional skills sets described below for the
remaining 6-7 weeks.
• The curriculum repeats 2x.
• Skills classes are basically organized like a college class.
• Classes are now taught over zoom. We use the zoom break out rooms and other tools to engage participants fully.
• Just like in a college class you are expected to bring your DBT Skills Manual to every class and a notepad to take notes.
• We focus on attendance because every class counts. Please call if you are going to be late so we won’t worry or call you
unnecessarily. We will call if you are not there within 15 minutes of start time....
• Each class is divided into two 55 minute time periods with a 5-10 minute break in between. During break you can eat a snack, visit,
talk to the teachers and rest.
• The first period is homework review and help with applying the concepts of the previous class.
• The next section is new material.
• Material is taught through lecture, modeling and in-class practice. We attempt to find ways to reach each student and adapt our
teaching to the needs of the students.
• Materials are taught in 8-9 week modules.
• Each Module begins with two weeks of Mindfulness Curriculum followed by one of the additional skills sets described below for the
remaining 6-7 weeks.
• The curriculum repeats 2x.
What Skills Will I learn?
Mindfulness is the core skill: Mindfulness skills are practices that over time increase capacity to be present for our lives as
they are unfolding; to develop the innate wisdom about ourselves that we all have, but may have lost touch with; to be able to act wisely despite strong emotions and to discriminate reality from our interpretations influenced heavily by our history and intense emotional experiencing. Mindfulness provides a certain stability as the river of life unfurls. Put another way mindfulness allows us to find balance and peace within the storms of life.
Distress Tolerance Skills: Distress tolerance skills are needed when life situations are causing pain and we cannot change them immediately or ever. In some cases we don't know how to solve the problem right away, or the timing is not right.
Instead of making the situation worse, we need the ability to tolerate the situation until it changes naturally, or we can think it through enough to solve it. In other cases, the problem is not solvable and we need to be able to accept this fact and reduce our suffering. This skill is called Radical Acceptance.
Emotion Regulation: This set of skills teaches you first to identify, understand and achieve a basic appreciation for emotions and their purpose. We then learn to how to regulate emotions, which basically means to either skillfully decrease their intensity, or change the emotion. You will also learn how to experience emotions without having them take over in a destructive way using mindfulness. We also teach skills that reduce your tendency to have intense emotional reactions that are out of proportion to the current situation. And there is more.....
Interpersonal Skills: These skills are for increasing effectiveness with friendships and other important relationships at home and at work. You learn how to hone your skills for getting yourself taken seriously, maintaining and getting new friends, and for increasing self respect.
Dialectics or Middle Path: Dialectics as conceptualized in DBT is a way of thinking. Dialectics holds that no one point of view is the truth of the situation. Each truth contains it's opposite view. For example, " I am both perfect as I am and if I want to be different, I must change" In DBT one of biggest changes clients/students make is to learn to accept themselves. Students are challenged to look for deep understanding beyond a limited sense of self into self as interconnected, transactional and understandable given the context of their lives now and in the past.
In class we search for the middle path and for how two seeming opposite perspectives can both contain truth.
they are unfolding; to develop the innate wisdom about ourselves that we all have, but may have lost touch with; to be able to act wisely despite strong emotions and to discriminate reality from our interpretations influenced heavily by our history and intense emotional experiencing. Mindfulness provides a certain stability as the river of life unfurls. Put another way mindfulness allows us to find balance and peace within the storms of life.
Distress Tolerance Skills: Distress tolerance skills are needed when life situations are causing pain and we cannot change them immediately or ever. In some cases we don't know how to solve the problem right away, or the timing is not right.
Instead of making the situation worse, we need the ability to tolerate the situation until it changes naturally, or we can think it through enough to solve it. In other cases, the problem is not solvable and we need to be able to accept this fact and reduce our suffering. This skill is called Radical Acceptance.
Emotion Regulation: This set of skills teaches you first to identify, understand and achieve a basic appreciation for emotions and their purpose. We then learn to how to regulate emotions, which basically means to either skillfully decrease their intensity, or change the emotion. You will also learn how to experience emotions without having them take over in a destructive way using mindfulness. We also teach skills that reduce your tendency to have intense emotional reactions that are out of proportion to the current situation. And there is more.....
Interpersonal Skills: These skills are for increasing effectiveness with friendships and other important relationships at home and at work. You learn how to hone your skills for getting yourself taken seriously, maintaining and getting new friends, and for increasing self respect.
Dialectics or Middle Path: Dialectics as conceptualized in DBT is a way of thinking. Dialectics holds that no one point of view is the truth of the situation. Each truth contains it's opposite view. For example, " I am both perfect as I am and if I want to be different, I must change" In DBT one of biggest changes clients/students make is to learn to accept themselves. Students are challenged to look for deep understanding beyond a limited sense of self into self as interconnected, transactional and understandable given the context of their lives now and in the past.
In class we search for the middle path and for how two seeming opposite perspectives can both contain truth.
What to bring to your first class
• DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition by Dr. Marsha Linehan
• A notepad or spiral notebook in which to take class notes
• Pens and pencils
• Snacks for break if you would like and a beverage for during class if you will be thirsty.
We look forward to seeing you there…
• DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition by Dr. Marsha Linehan
• A notepad or spiral notebook in which to take class notes
• Pens and pencils
• Snacks for break if you would like and a beverage for during class if you will be thirsty.
We look forward to seeing you there…
Columbia City DBT LLC #603517916