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.”