DBT Skills Library

DBT Path teaches the full set of evidence-based Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills online. Explore our growing library of DBT skill guides below. Each one explains a core DBT skill, when to use it, and how to practice it. DBT Path is the original online DBT skills class, taught live online since 2013, with personalized weekly feedback and the same instructors throughout your journey.

What are DBT skills?

DBT skills are practical, evidence-based tools from Dialectical Behavior Therapy that help you manage intense emotions, get through crises without making things worse, ask for what you need, and stay present. DBT was developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan, and its skills are taught in four modules. DBT Path has taught all four online since 2013.

• Mindfulness: noticing the present moment without judgment, the foundation for every other skill.
• Distress Tolerance: getting through a crisis or painful moment without making it worse, with skills like TIPP, STOP and ACCEPTS.
• Emotion Regulation: understanding your emotions and lowering emotional vulnerability, with skills like PLEASE and Opposite Action.
• Interpersonal Effectiveness: asking for what you need and setting boundaries while protecting your relationships and self-respect, with skills like DEAR MAN and GIVE.

Looking for a quick definition instead of a full guide? Browse the DBT glossary for short explanations of dialectics, wise mind, diary cards, target behaviors, and more DBT terms.

Distress Tolerance Skills

• The TIPP Skill: calm intense emotions fast by changing your body chemistry.
• The STOP Skill: pause before you react so a hard moment does not become a bigger problem.
• The Alternate Rebellion Skill: satisfy the urge to rebel without harming your life or your goals.
• Radical Acceptance: stop fighting a reality you cannot change so you suffer less.
• The ACCEPTS Skill: use healthy distraction to get through a crisis without making it worse.
• The Self-Soothe Skill: comfort yourself through hard moments using your five senses.
• IMPROVE the Moment: make a painful moment more bearable with seven simple tools.
• Pros and Cons: weigh acting on an urge against resisting it to make a wise choice.
• Willingness vs. Willfulness: stop fighting reality and choose to participate in life.
• Half-Smiling & Willing Hands: use your face and hands to help your body accept reality.

Emotion Regulation Skills

• The PLEASE Skill: reduce your vulnerability to intense emotions by caring for your body.
• Opposite Action: act opposite to an emotion’s urge to change how you feel.
• Check the Facts: test whether an emotion fits the facts or your assumptions.
• Cope Ahead: rehearse a hard situation in advance so it feels less overwhelming.
• Build Mastery: build confidence and positive experiences to steady your mood.
• Accumulate Positive Emotions: add small daily pleasures and longer-term goals to build a life worth living.
• Problem Solving: change a situation that fits your emotion by working through it step by step.
• Mindfulness of Current Emotions: feel an emotion fully and let it pass like a wave, without acting on it.
• Understanding and Naming Emotions: identify what you feel and what the emotion is for, the foundation skill.

Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills

• The DEAR MAN Skill: ask for what you want, or say no, clearly and respectfully.
• The Dime Game: weigh the factors that help you decide how strongly to ask for something or say no.
• The GIVE Skill: keep relationships strong while you ask for something or say no.
• The FAST Skill: keep your self-respect in difficult interactions.
• Validation: show that feelings make sense, for others and for yourself.
• Walking the Middle Path: balance acceptance and change and soften either-or thinking.
• Self-Validation: acknowledge your own feelings as real and understandable, instead of judging them.

Mindfulness Skills

• Wise Mind: find the calm, centered balance between emotion and logic.
• The What Skills: observe, describe, and participate, the core of mindfulness.
• The How Skills: practice nonjudgmentally, one-mindfully, and effectively.
• Loving Kindness: send warm, caring wishes to yourself and others to build goodwill in place of judgment.
• Mindfulness of Current Thoughts: observe your thoughts as passing events rather than facts you must believe or act on.
• Doing Mind & Being Mind: balance getting things done with simply being present, and choose the state the moment calls for.
• States of Mind: recognize reasonable mind, emotion mind, and wise mind, and move toward the balanced center.

DBT Tools

• Chain Analysis: trace the step-by-step sequence that led to a behavior so you can see where a skill would have fit.
• Diary Card: track your emotions, urges, and skills each day so the patterns in your week become visible.

Frequently asked questions about DBT skills

What are DBT skills?

DBT skills are evidence-based coping and communication tools from Dialectical Behavior Therapy, grouped into four modules: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness. DBT Path teaches all four in its online DBT skills class.

How many DBT skills are there?

DBT includes dozens of individual skills across its four modules, many known by memorable acronyms like TIPP, STOP, PLEASE and DEAR MAN. The DBT Path Skills Library has a guide for each core skill, and DBT Path’s 9-month online class teaches the full set.

What are the four DBT modules?

Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness. Mindfulness is considered the foundation that the other three modules build on.

Can I learn DBT skills online?

Yes. DBT Path has taught DBT skills online since 2013 in live, lecture-style classes with cameras off, recordings you can revisit, and personalized written feedback on your practice every week. It is skills education, not therapy, and many students take it alongside their own therapy.

Learn These DBT Skills With Guidance

Reading about a skill is a great start. Practicing it with support is where real change happens. At DBT Path, you learn these skills and the full DBT curriculum in live, private, online classes with personalized weekly feedback. Explore our online DBT classes to get started.