Become a DBT Skills Peer Educator
A new DBT skills peer educator training from DBT Path. Coming soon.
Have you ever wanted to start your own peer-led DBT skills class? Wondered where to begin, or how to pair up with a therapist who shares your vision? You are exactly who we built this for.
From one person in recovery to the next
Our founder, Debbie DeMarco Bennett, did not start as a teacher. She started as someone in recovery from BPD, learning the DBT skills that gave her back a life worth living. Those skills worked so well, and felt so missing from the online world, that she founded DBT Path, the original online DBT skills class. For over thirteen years, she and her team have taught these skills to emotionally sensitive people all over the world.
Now she wants to teach the teachers.
This has been a long time coming. Over the years, our own students have asked us for it, and people who found DBT Path online have written to say, in so many words, “I want to do what you are doing, Debbie. How do I start?” This training is our answer, and because of that interest, we expect our first cohort to fill up quickly.
Hi, I’m Debbie
Hi, I’m Debbie. I built DBT Path out of my own recovery, and teaching these skills is one of the truest ways I have kept living them. If you feel the pull to pass this gift on, I would love to help you find your own voice and walk alongside you as you build something that is truly yours.
Who becomes a DBT skills peer educator
This is for the person who feels the pull to do this work, and who wants to keep it human. Small. Warm. The opposite of an app or a faceless platform. If you have lived experience and a heart for helping others through it, we want to help you turn that into something real.
In a cozy peer community on Zoom, we will help you discover your own gifts, your particular talents and strengths, and shape them into an offering that is genuinely yours. We will coach you on how to position yourself so that the people you are meant to serve, the ones who will resonate most with you, can actually find you. You will not be a copy of anyone else. You will be unmistakably you, doing work that fits.
This is not a clinical program, and it will not make you a therapist. It is peer education and peer support, taught by someone who has walked the path for more than a decade and wants to walk alongside you as you build yours.
A small taste of the curriculum
Here is a little of what we will explore together:
- Help you find your own unique spin so you stand out and attract the people you are meant to help.
- Teach DBT skills with confidence, in your own authentic voice.
- Hold a warm, safe space for a group online, where real connection can happen.
- Set healthy boundaries, including how much of your own recovery story to share, and when.
- Find a good match with a licensed therapist, social worker, or psychiatrist as your co-facilitator.
- Understand the scope of peer support: what it is, and where it ends.
- Shape and position your offering so the right people can find you.
- Keep your own recovery strong while you pass these skills on.
This training includes one-on-one mentorship with Debbie herself, and along the way guest clinicians will join us to speak on certain topics. It is a paid program and a real investment in your future, with flexible payment and financing options. We are still finalizing the exact tuition and the length of the program, and the people on the waitlist will be the first to know.
Are you a clinician interested in pairing up with a peer educator? Please contact us.
Teaching is how you keep your own practice alive
There is something we have learned in over thirteen years of doing this: teaching these skills is one of the surest ways to keep living them. When you guide someone else through Wise Mind, through distress tolerance, through building a life worth living, you stay accountable to your own practice in a way nothing else quite matches. This is not only about building something for others. It is about strengthening your own recovery by passing it on. We believe there is more than enough of this work to go around, and the world needs more real, human people doing it, not fewer.
What the research says about peer support and DBT skills
This work is heartfelt, and it is also increasingly supported by research. SAMHSA, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, recognizes peer support workers as people in recovery who help others stay engaged in recovery and reduce the likelihood of relapse. A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis in Psychological Medicine found that peer support can improve recovery, empowerment, and self-efficacy, and a 2024 umbrella review in BMC Medicine reported benefits for self-efficacy, recovery, and some symptoms of depression.
You also do not need a full, comprehensive DBT program to help people. A systematic review of the research provides preliminary evidence that DBT skills training on its own can ease emotional dysregulation and depressive symptoms. For over thirteen years, DBT Path has seen what these skills, taught with warmth and consistency, can do in people’s lives all over the world.
These findings describe peer support and DBT skills broadly, as a field of research, not outcomes of the DBT Path peer educator training. A few reputable sources: SAMHSA: Peer Support Workers for Those in Recovery, a 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis in Psychological Medicine, a 2024 umbrella review in BMC Medicine, and a systematic review of DBT skills training as a stand-alone treatment.
What you will earn
This is about more than a certificate. It is the quiet confidence and self-esteem that come from taking your own story, the very experiences you once lived through, and shaping them into a real service that supports other people in their healing. There are few things more rewarding than turning what you have survived into something that helps someone else build a life worth living.
Graduates of the DBT Path peer educator training also receive a Certificate of Completion as a DBT skills peer educator. Here is a small sample:
Frequently asked questions
What is a DBT skills peer educator?
A DBT skills peer educator is someone with lived experience who is trained to teach DBT skills in a peer-support setting, not as a therapist. DBT Path trains peer educators to bring these skills to others in their own voice, through warm, human, peer-led classes and groups.
Do I need to be a licensed therapist to become a DBT skills peer educator?
No. The DBT Path peer educator training is peer education and peer support, so you do not need to be a licensed therapist to take part. DBT Path welcomes people with lived experience and a heart for helping others, and teaches you to work within a clear peer-support scope.
How does DBT Path train peer educators?
DBT Path trains peer educators in a small, cozy peer community on Zoom, led by founder Debbie DeMarco Bennett, who has taught DBT skills online since 2013. The training includes one-on-one mentorship with Debbie and helps you uncover your own gifts, shape an offering that is genuinely yours, and learn to reach the people you are meant to serve.
How much does the DBT Path peer educator training cost?
The DBT Path peer educator training is a paid program and a meaningful investment in your future. We are still finalizing the exact tuition, and the people on the waitlist will be the first to hear. Flexible payment and financing options will be available.
How long is the DBT Path peer educator training?
We are still finalizing the length of the DBT Path peer educator training, and the people on the waitlist will be the first to know the details. The program includes one-on-one mentorship with founder Debbie DeMarco Bennett.
Is the DBT Path peer educator program therapy?
No. The DBT Path peer educator program is a psychoeducational, peer-support program. It is not therapy, and DBT Path peer educators do not diagnose, treat, or provide crisis services.
When does the DBT Path peer educator training launch?
The DBT Path peer educator training is launching soon. Join the waitlist on this page and DBT Path will email you the moment doors open.
Get on the list
We are getting ready to launch, and the people on this list will be the first to know when doors open.
DBT Path peer educator training is a psychoeducational, peer-support program. It is not therapy. Our peer educators do not diagnose, treat, or provide crisis services.