Learn Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills in Our Online DBT Classes
If you answered yes to any of the above, then you are in the right place.
Create the Life You Want
Learn how to stop:
Acting Impulsively
Spiraling Emotionally
Self-Sabotaging
Angry Outbursts
Letting past trauma take the wheel
Create & Keep Healthy Relationships
Learn how to cope with:
Fear of Abandonment and Rejection
Jealousy
Trust Issues
Fear of Intimacy
Black and White Thinking/Splitting
Enjoy the Benefits of Online Learning
Enjoy:
No commute, missing work, or school
Class is recorded weekly so you can learn at your own pace
Private vs. an in-person group
Reputable program (online since 2013)
THE BASICS
TUITION OPTIONS
What We Will Cover
MINDFULNESS (Integrated into all modules)
Mindfulness skills are taught and integrated into all the modules listed below rather than separately, at no additional cost. They are an essential foundation of DBT.
DBT Mindfulness skills are in-the-moment practices that give you greater access to your own inner wisdom. This leads to us being more in tune with what we are thinking, feeling, needing, and wanting, so we can regulate our emotions even more deeply.
INTERPERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Interpersonal Effectiveness
Tentative Syllabus for IE (subject to change)
Week 1: Interpersonal Effectiveness Orientation
Week 2: Being Dialectical in Relationships (addressing black-or-white thinking, all good/all bad thinking)
Week 3: Communication Styles
Week 4: Asking for what you want or need, DBT Style (DEAR MAN)
Week 5: Identity and Self-Awareness (Get to know yourself better)
Week 6: The Necessary Practice of Self-Compassion (Old Tapes, Cheerleading Statements)
Week 7: Self-Respect and Assertiveness Practice DBT Style (FAST)
Week 8: Establishing and Reinforcing Boundaries
Week 9: Getting Into and Keeping Relationships, DBT Style (GIVE) and Ending Toxic Relationships
Week 10: Attachment Theory
Week 11: Biosocial Theory & Validation (for you and others)
Week 12: Self-Care isn’t Selfish (Healthy Relationships Start with You)
Gain insight into your relationship roadblocks and move toward creating and sustaining meaningful, long-term relationships, including friendships, romantic/partnership relationships, family relationships, and connections in the workplace.
You’ll build a toolbox of proven interpersonal skills that have helped many people with BPD, empaths, and emotionally sensitive people with other emotion regulation issues finally have what they want most in life: relationships that matter. You will also learn tools for leaving those relationships that no longer serve you, sometimes referred to as “toxic” relationships.
Mindfulness skills are woven throughout the curriculum while learning interpersonal effectiveness skills.
This module can help with the following…
Your Boundaries are a Blur and You…
- have trouble setting boundaries
- feel triggered and rejected when others set boundaries with you
- get told you’re pushing other people’s boundaries, and it sometimes costs you the relationship
- are an empath and take on other people’s emotions
You have abandonment fears come up for you in relationships and you…
- see pretty much everything as a sign that someone’s going to leave or reject you
- dread any kind of disagreement with others because you don’t know how to handle it
You find criticism especially painful and you…
- typically interpret criticism (at work, school, home) as catastrophic
You know your early childhood relationships are affecting you now and…
- You want to learn to uncover the influence of your early childhood relationships with your caregivers on the relationships you have today. You’ll learn how to identify and understand your own attachment style and how to communicate effectively, build trust, and create strong and healthy relationships regardless of your style.
You have an Identity Crisis, causing you…
- shapeshift like a chameleon around others and feel inauthentic
- feel exhausted trying to be everything to everyone so they’ll accept you
- desperately long to know and honor who YOU really are
Geeking out on Science Lights You Up, and You Want to Learn…
- in easy-to-understand lessons, about things like “Mirror Neurons,” which are specialized brain cells that aid in understanding and relating to others, and how they affect your emotions
- how to unlock the secrets of your nervous system and discover how it shapes your relationships
- …and so much more
Sound like you? You’re in the right place!
DISTRESS TOLERANCE
Distress Tolerance
Tentative Syllabus for Distress Tolerance (subject to change)
Week 1: Distress Tolerance Orientation & Wise Mind
Week 2: Radical Acceptance
Week 3: Skillful Distracting vs. Avoidance (Wise Mind ACCEPTS)
Week 4: Fostering a Witness Mind (Observe, Describe, Participate)
Week 5: Describing (cont’d) & Self-Soothing Your Nervous System
Week 6: IMPROVE the Moment
Week 7: Pros & Cons, DBT Style
Week 8: Urge Surfing (and neuroscience nugget on neurons)
Week 9: Changing Your Mood Through Chemistry (TIP and Half-Smile)
Week 10: Coping Thoughts & Strategies
Week 11: Bridge Burning, DBT Style
Week 12: STOP Skill & Module Recap
Let’s face it — you can be a little bit impulsive. Your emotions come on intensely, and it can be difficult to then sit with the distress of upsets, (such as a conflict with a loved one or an issue at work), so you end up turning to habits that you know don’t serve you in the long run. You’ve experienced the consequences of this time and time again. And you want to change this. Yesterday.
Emotionally Sensitive people often (quite understandably!) turn to impulsive behaviors when the emotional pain feels too hard to bear – because it works (in the short term).
It makes sense that you’d repeat these unhealthy behaviors (like substance use, quitting a job or other commitment, lashing out, and self-harm) because acting on them provides a sense of desperately needed relief in the immediate.
But what you’re noticing is this behavior doesn’t take into account the whole picture. The consequences. The damage to your relationships, career, health, and reputation.
Distress tolerance is about learning to tolerate those really difficult, intensely emotional moments in ways that will honor both your short-term need to feel better and your longer-term goals for building a life worth living.
Learning and practicing DBT skills can help you get there.
Recognize and better understand your impulsive behaviors and have a proven toolbox of strategies and skills that can help reduce them significantly. We’ll go through effective strategies step-by-step.
Mindfulness skills are woven in throughout the curriculum while learning distress tolerance skills.
This module can help with the following…
Your Emotions Get So Overwhelming They’re Unbearable and…
- upsets quickly escalate to feeling like a crisis
- even small amounts of stress feel overwhelming
- you worry each time that the intense episode will last forever
Stressful Situations over which you have no control:
- leave you feeling powerless
- cause you to want to “check out,” or you actually do dissociate
You Often Feel Triggered and…
- find yourself avoiding, numbing, denying, or suppressing the trigger and emotions
- you try to make yourself feel better but often end up feeling worse
EMOTION REGULATION
Emotion Regulation
Tentative Syllabus for Emotion Regulation (subject to change)
Week 1: Emotion Regulation Orientation
Week 2: Why Mindfulness & Feelings Model
Week 3: Checking the Facts, Identifying Triggers, & Noticing Emotions
Week 4: Being Effective, Common Challenges, EmoReg Worksheet 4A
Week 5: Doing Mind vs. Being Mind & PLEASE Skills
Week 6: Non-Judgmental Stance for Reducing Emotional Intensity
Week 7: ABC Skills
Week 8: Problems Solving, DBT Style
Week 9: Limbic System, Anxiety Self-Care, Holistic Model
Week 10: Opposite to Emotion Action
Week 11: More Opposite Action and Behavior Chain Analysis
Week 12: THINK and Module Recap Questions
You’re a passionate person with strong emotions and impulses. You may have even been called an “empath” because your emotions are so intense, especially when you hear about other people or animals hurting or being mistreated or upsetting news stories.
You don’t want to lose this super compassionate part of who you are *and* you see the value in learning to channel your emotional intensity so it doesn’t overpower you. You want to be of service to the world AND feel healthy, in control, and balanced so that you and your relationships and goals don’t suffer.
Learn the essential roles that emotions play in your life and skills for learning to regulate your emotional intensity. You’ll have a proven step-by-step system that can assist you with no longer being at the mercy of your intense emotions.
Mindfulness skills are woven throughout the curriculum while learning emotion regulation skills.
You’ll start this module after Distress Tolerance.
This module can help with the following…
You Often Act Out on Emotion and…
- it’s challenging sometimes to pinpoint what led to you acting on an impulse, urge, or in response to an intense emotion
- your emotional reactions seem more intense than those of other people
- you sometimes think your emotional intensity is out of proportion to the trigger but don’t know what to do about it
Your self-care is either non-existent or needs some work, because you’re
- not taking care of yourself physically
- you’re not getting enough sleep (or sleeping too much)
- caffeine, nicotine, or other substances are impacting your mood
You find yourself getting emotionally dysregulated
- when you have thoughts about what other people feel or what you think may be their intentions
- when you have critical, judgmental thoughts about yourself, others, or life situation
- when you feel stuck when it comes to problem solving stressful issues that come up
The order of the modules for students starting in February of 2023 is as follows: Interpersonal Effectiveness (IE), Distress Tolerance (DT), and Emotion Regulation (ER). Rather than offering Mindfulness standalone, we integrate that module each week into IE, DT, and EmoReg.
What’s Included in Our Online DBT Classes
CONVENIENT ENTIRELY ONLINE DBT SKILLS CLASS
If you’re looking for privacy and to learn DBT Skills in an online class format, our course is a fantastic way to learn, study, practice, and review DBT skills and concepts in a supportive, non-judgmental, environment.
Group members from around the globe meet weekly on Mondays from 4:00 – 5:00 pm Pacific for this 60-minute course that is recorded for your convenience.
Students do not turn on their cams or speak during class (this happens in other Zoom bonus opportunities each month for students who desire this type of connection). Instead, we keep things focused and streamlined with a lecture style format so you can take notes, jot down your questions, and not experience constant interruptions during the lesson.
In between class sessions each week, instructors will provide additional materials, ranging from videos, articles, worksheets, and more to keep you engaged and practicing.
Graduates of our course retain access to our Additional Resources: Completing the full 9-months of our course does not mean goodbye – you’ll retain access to our Additional Resources at no extra cost! You can peruse and enjoy our ever-growing library of resources, study aids, supplemental reading, and videos to help support you on your continued DBT skills journey — all at no extra cost.
GROUP CHAT
Connect with Peers Around the Globe
Hey there introverts, celebs and public figures wanting anonymity, and others who enjoy a good 90s-style chat! Interact with peers around the globe who are studying the skills right alongside you in our virtual classroom. Chat is open for 30-minutes before class start time. Just type into the box and engage. It’s a great place to connect and remember that you are never alone! Participation in chat is optional.
PRIVATE STUDY HALL FORUM
You’ll also be invited to join our private Study Hall forum, exclusively for students, where we have the following:
- Q&A Thread: Post your questions that come up with the material.
- Homework Thread: Post your assignment each week, discuss your skills use, and participate in opportunities for connection and discussion with your peers from around the world. You will receive individualized feedback from a team member each week to support you in understanding and utilizing the skills in meaningful ways in your own life circumstances.
- Mid-Week Materials: Supplemental study material to enhance your learning and skills practice.
- Weekend Self-Care Thread: Get support around planning for self-care and skills practice over the weekend.
- Graduates retain access to our Study Hall Forum: Completing the full 9-months of our course does not mean goodbye – you’ll retain access to our Study Hall forum and connection with your peers from around the world as a valued member of our Community! You’ll be able to enjoy our Midweek Materials, participate in our Weekend Self-Care Thread, and should you wish to do so, post your support in the Q&A and Homework Threads for students who are still enrolled in class — all at no extra cost!
OPTIONAL BONUSES
Enhance your understanding and practice of the skills
More extroverted and need more than the lecture-style lesson each week? If you like to be on-cam, engaging in real-time, we offer additional optional opportunities for students and graduates of the program to connect for activities such as:
- DBT & Tea™: a question-and-answer discussion about DBT skills
- Wise Mind Workshop™: includes activities ranging from journaling to dancing/movement to embody, express, and experience the skills you’ll be learning
- Somatics with Serena™: a class that uses micromovements to help release trauma and stress patterns held in the body. Bonus offerings are subject to change.
Introverts, we’ve got you covered, too — you’re welcome to attend any of the Zoom bonus offerings without turning on your camera if that helps you feel more comfortable.
Graduates retain access to our Optional Bonuses: Completing the full 9-months of our course does not mean goodbye – you’ll retain access to our bonus workshops and the continued connection with your peers from around the world at no extra cost!
