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
Your Boundaries are a Blur and You…
You have abandonment fears come up for you in relationships and you…
You find criticism especially painful and you…
You know your early childhood relationships are affecting you now and…
You have an Identity Crisis, causing you…
Geeking out on Science Lights You Up, and You Want to Learn…
Sound like you? You’re in the right place!
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.
DISTRESS TOLERANCE
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.
Your Emotions Get So Overwhelming They’re Unbearable and…
Stressful Situations over which you have no control:
You Often Feel Triggered and…
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
EMOTION REGULATION
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.
You Often Act Out on Emotion and…
Your self-care is either non-existent or needs some work, because you’re
You find yourself getting emotionally dysregulated
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
“I wanted you to know that I have really enjoyed this DBT skills course. It is so well done and the information is laid out and presented in a way that makes the material clear and accessible. I’ve recommended this course to my therapist and psychiatrist for them to refer others. I have made incredible progress and feel different (in a good way). Using these skills has truly changed me. I know that even though I made a lot of progress, I am going to need to take this again in future, and I am looking forward to doing so.”
I am so grateful to the entire DBT Path team. This course has absolutely changed my life. I have learned how to have healthy relationships and to let go of the ones that are not positive for me, validate myself, and truly accept that there is not something inherently unlovable about me. I am so proud of myself for the work I have done and continue to do. I have never been proud of myself for anything! I honestly don’t know where I would be if you hadn’t been so kind to me and believed in me when I was barely hanging on. With much love and appreciation
I have seen a lot of medical professionals regarding my emotional sensitivity, and not a single one of them has shown the amount of compassion and understanding I have seen in this course. I don’t really like interacting with people and get really anxious in those times, but all of the team at DBT Path that I have interacted with, and my fellow students, have been so comforting and friendly via the classes, emails and threads that I look forward to each interaction.
“Truly I wish you to know, Debbie, I really don’t know what I would have done without you and your team. I know my journey is only just beginning but for once I’m understanding so much about me and the reasons why I act the way I do and that it’s ok that it’s not madness, it’s not me being a Drama Queen. Through your kindness that shines through every week with the start of class, you just bring so much care, understanding, peace and love that when I sit down for class it just relaxes me and brings calmness along with hope.”