DBT-A: DBT for Adolescents Training

Executive Summary:

DBT brings together a series of skills and techniques which are powerful and well chosen ones, and DBT-A focuses it on working with adolescents. Whether you want to simply learn about DBT and how to apply it effectively, or are thinking of establishing a full DBT service, this course has it covered.

The course covers the delivery of effective DBT at its most relevant for adolescents, including: confusion about self, impulsivity, lack of emotional control, interpersonal problems, family problems and dilemmas, high risk behaviours, including suicidal behaviour and non-suicidal self-injury.

To find out more or to contact APT, see https://www.apt.ac/dbt-a-training-course.html

Who should attend this DBT course?

People who attend our DBT training normally fall into one of two categories:

1. Professionals who see patients in 1:1 treatment settings, have a significant degree of clinical skill, and wish to add DBT techniques to their repertoire.

2. 'Whole teams' (either in inpatient or community settings) seeking to develop a common approach to DBT and a full DBT Service.

The professional affiliations of people attending our DBT training include: mental health/psychiatric nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and others.

To find out more or to contact APT, see https://www.apt.ac/dbt-a-training-course.html

The DBT Essentials course covers a great deal:

Validation.

• Definition of validation, and why it is important.

• The importance of validation in discussing adolescents' confusion about their own identity.

• Validation and its dialectical balance with problem solving and change strategies.

• Linehan's Biopsychosocial model, and how validation fits in with it.

• The implication of invalidating environments for a child, and later for the adult.

• What constitutes an invalidating environment, including 'ideal' environments ... and a validating one, including how to create it.

• Exercises on creating validating responses to specific statements.

• Different ways of validating.

• Using validation in your own situation.

Metaphors.

• How metaphors work and why we should use them.

• 6 Examples of metaphors.

• 4 Metaphors you can use repeatedly, for common problem situations.

• General principles of metaphors, including visual metaphors.

• Metaphors exercise.

• A case example, to illustrate the use of validation and metaphor.

Relentless problem solving.

• The five stage problem solving strategy.

• Forms for clients (and you) to use with problem solving.

• Problem solving exercise.

• Personal experience of problem solving: exercise.

Contingency management.

• Differential reinforcement in a clinical setting.

• The nature of contingency management and how it interacts with the conscious or unconscious motivations of the client.

• Behavioural analysis, especially as a response to severe behaviour such as parasuicidal behaviour.

• Chain analysis and solution analysis.

• Case example.

Emotion-regulation exercise, especially including the focus on biological elements such as: sleep, exercise, illnesses, circadian rhythm.

Interpersonal effectiveness exercise. To be effective interpersonally proves to be a key skill, and the research evidence is impressive on this. It is therefore one of the four skills taught in DBT, addressing frequent interpersonal issues, and especially family problems and dilemmas.

Mindfulness.

• A definition and description of mindfulness and the best purposes it can fulfil.

• Kabat-Zinn's descriptions of mindfulness.

• Mindfulness and its role in balancing 'the emotional mind' with 'the reasonable mind' to achieve 'the wise mind'.

• The three 'What' skills of mindfulness.

• The three 'How' skills of mindfulness.

• Problems of adolescence to which mindfulness applies most powerfully.

• An on-going introspective exercise in mindfulness.

Distress tolerance.

• 'Distraction behaviours' that may be used to contradict and neutralise distress.

• 'Beyond distraction': steering the thought processes.

• 'Radical' distress tolerance: doing nothing. How to do nothing: the fact of this turning out to be an effective approach for many adolescents, and the theory behind it.

Walking the Middle Path

• What this means, why it is important, and an overview of some of the exercises involved.

Other skills of DBT.

• How to order competing priorities: deciding which of several severe problems to tackle first.

• Life-threatening behaviours, therapy-threatening behaviours, and behaviours that interfere with the quality of life.

• The patient-therapist agreement - our role in it.

• Assumptions we can make about the patient - and those we can't.

To find out more or to contact APT, see https://www.apt.ac/dbt-a-training-course.html

What the DBT-A course will do for you:

• You will have the feeling of knowing what DBT is all about, understanding it, and how it applies to helping adolescents.

• You will be able to create validating environments - environments that make people feel good.

• You will be able to validate other people - to have them feel as though you are on the same wavelength as they are.

• You will be able to quickly have people 'see things differently'.

• You will be able to (help people to) solve problems.

• You will be able to respond to people who have just done severe behaviours in a way which is caring yet does not reinforce the severe behaviour.

• You will be able to (help adolescents to) bring some sense of order and predictability to their emotions.

• You will have the chance to begin practising mindfulness.

• You will be able to (help others to) tolerate distress much better. Not to allow distress to get into a 'vicious spiral'.

• You will be able to order competing priorities amongst several 'top priorities'.

• If you want to set up a fully fledged DBT service, you will have taken the first step and be able to see the path ahead.

To find out more or to contact APT, see https://www.apt.ac/dbt-a-training-course.html

What you receive as a result of attending APT's DBT training:

All delegates are registered at APT as having attended the course, and receive a certificate to acknowledge their attendance, registration, and APT-Accreditation at the appropriate level. As a bona fide APT event, this course automatically has accreditation from The Association for Psychological Therapies. This accreditation is given weight by the fact of over 100,000 professionals having attended APT training.

Upon completion of the 3-day course, delegates will receive APT's Level 1 Accreditation in DBT.

To find out more or to contact APT, see https://www.apt.ac/dbt-a-training-course.html