DBT Skills are taught on a weekly basis in a 1.5 hour group session. DBT skill groups are not traditional “process” groups where people share feelings, thoughts, opinions and simply discuss about them. Rather, a DBT Skills group is much more like a class on “emotional intelligence.” Certainly sharing can and does happen, and members can be supportive to one another as far as they are comfortable; however, the group is about learning DBT skills in a classroom style format.
At our center, every group session starts with a mindfulness exercise followed by homework review, presentation of a new skill, and homework assignment. When presenting a new skill, handouts are given to clients and experiential exercises are conducted as well in order to facilitate the learning process.
The DBT skills training is structured in four specific modules: (1) Mindfulness, (2) Emotion Regulation, (3) Distress Tolerance, (4) Interpersonal Effectiveness. there is an an additional module for adolescents and families called “The middle path.”
Mindfulness
The main purpose of this module is to teach clients to be present and pay attention in the moment.
Distress Tolerance
In t his module clients are taught specific stress management skills in order “to survive a crisis without making it worse.”
Emotion Regulation
In this module clients with learn how to skillfully deal with mild to intense emotions in a more effective way by noticing them, learning to tolerating them, and finally deciding how to effectively respond to them.
Interpersonal effectiveness
This module focuses in teaching clients how to deal with others in a more effective way without damaging the relationship, handling interpersonal conflict or assessing whether a relationship is toxic or not.
In order to participate in a group the following requirements need to be fulfill: 1. The potential participant needs to be in an ongoing individual psychotherapy for a minimum of 1-month either with an outside provider or with a therapist at the center. 2. Commit to an 8-week module (adults) or a 6-week module (adolescents and parents) 3. Schedule an initial intake appointment in order to assessed the degree of emotion dysregulation problems and whether the group is going to be good fit for the participant.
Multifamily DBT Group
Ages: Teens and Parents
Facilitator: TBD
Next group: TBD (contact us)
DBT 101
Ages: Adult (18 and over)
Topic: Interpersonal Effectiveness
Starting date: March 7th, 2017
Day/time: Tuesdays from 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Facilitator: TBD
DBT 102
Starting date: TBD
Day/time: TBD
Facilitator: TBD
Relationships 101 for teens (advanced DBT)
This is an advanced skills group for teens that have already completed a Multifamily DBT curriculum.
Starting date: TBD
Facilitator: Patricia E. Zurita Ona, Psy.D
