DBT Parenting for Teens (and Young Adults) is a 12-week course for parents, step-parents, or guardians of teens and/or young adults who have difficulty regulating their emotions, may have frequent and intense emotional outbursts, may self-harm, may express suicidal ideation, and/or may engage in suicidal behaviour.
Dr. Bethany Michel, R.Psych., will teach practical DBT skills and provide hands on exercises that are designed to help reduce the number, intensity, and frequency of your child’s emotional outbursts and negative behaviours over time. By the end of the course, we hope you will be able to better manage your own stress, feel more confident in your parenting, feel better equipped to handle your child’s disruptive behaviours, and develop a warmer relationship with your child.
This course will be an active, experiential course that will include didactics, role-plays, at-home exercises, Q&A, and discussion. You, along with other parents facing similar parenting challenges, will be asked to try new approaches to parenting and communication. The facilitators, Dr. Bethany Michel, R.Psych., and Dr. Leslie Zanette, R.Psych., will endeavour to create a supportive and open learning environment.
DETAILS
Time: Mondays from 6-8pm
Duration: 12 weeks
Dates: September 16 (no class September 30, October 14, and November 11)
Location: Zoom (All participants must reside in BC.)
Fee: $1,800 for one parent ($150 per week); $2,880 for two parents ($240 per week)
Size: Max 13 participants
Facilitators: Dr. Bethany Michel, R.Psych., and Dr. Leslie Zanette, R.Psych.
ABOUT THE COURSE
Designed by Dr. Bethany Michel and based on the works of Dr Marsha Linehan, Dr. Alan Fruzetti, and Dr. Francheska Perepletchikova, DBT Parenting for Teens is a DBT-based approach to parenting teens and young adults who struggle with emotion regulation.
DBT is an approach that targets intense emotion dysregulation, based on the principles of change and acceptance to better tolerate painful circumstances and reduce suffering. DBT parenting provides guidance on how parents can manage the kind of stress inherent in parenting a child who feels emotions intensely and whose behaviour may seem out of control, at times. In this course, you will learn key DBT principles such as validation, dialectics, relationship mindfulness, and behaviour change, and how to put core DBT skills into practice.
Weekly Agenda
- Brief mindfulness exercise (~5-7 minutes)
- Homework review (~45-50 minutes)
- Break (~5-10 minutes)
- New lesson (~45-50 minutes)
Participants are provided a printed copy of the worksheets (homework exercises) before the course starts. The lesson slides will be emailed each week.
ABOUT YOUR TEEN
You may find this course helpful if your child is:
- Highly sensitive and emotionally reactive.
- Easily frustrated, quick to anger, may have difficulties maintaining friendships.
- Highly anxious, may refuse to go to school or try new activities.
- May self-harm, express thoughts of suicide, or engage in suicidal behaviour.
- May be in therapy, on a waitlist for therapy, refuse to go therapy, or stopped going to therapy.
- May be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD), BPD traits, bipolar disorder, anxiety, or depression.
ABOUT YOU
You might find this course helpful if you are a parent, step-parent, or guardian of a teen and you:
- Feel like you walk on eggshells around your child.
- Are not confident about being able to manage your child’s behaviour.
- Are worried or confused about how to approach discipline.
- Are afraid to discipline because of your child’s strong reactions.
- Avoid situations because you are worried about how your child will react.
- Feel like you have to give in to your child’s demands because of their threats.
- Frequently find yourself in conflicts with your child.
- Feel burned out by your child’s disruptive behaviour and emotional needs.
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, we hope you will:
- Better understand the causes of emotion dysregulation in teens and young adults.
- Learn how to effectively validate to reduce emotional outbursts.
- Learn strategies to regulate your own emotions and tolerate your child’s outbursts.
- Learn how to set limits without compromising your family’s values or feel like you are “giving in.”
- Learn principles of behaviour change that can shape your child’s behaviour.
- Learn how to solve problems with your child collaboratively.
RESULTS
By the end of the course, we hope:
- You will feel more confident and calmer in parenting.
- You will feel less panicked when your child becomes dysregulated.
- Your child will be in a better position to benefit from their own individual therapy because you will be able to support more effectively the changes they are trying to make.
- You will revive the feeling of warmth and affection you may have experienced before frequent conflicts with your child.
- You will enjoy and appreciate your child more, even when they are going through a hard time.
ABOUT THE FACILITATORS
Dr. Bethany Michel, R.Psych., is the director of the Child, Adolescent, and Family division of the DBT Centre of Vancouver. She specializes in providing comprehensive DBT, and working with children, teens, and families who struggle with emotion regulation, self-harm, and chronic suicidal thoughts and behaviours. She is also a sessional instructor in the Department of Psychology and the School and Applied Child Psychology program at UBC.
At the DBT Centre, Dr. Michel works with children and teens who have difficulties managing and coping with overwhelming emotions, self-harm, and make suicide attempts. In addition, she regularly provides parent consultations. She also provides supervision to doctoral students training in DBT.
Dr. Leslie Zanette, R.Psych., is a staff psychologist at the DBT Centre of Vancouver. She specializes in providing comprehensive DBT, and working with teens who struggle with emotion regulation, self-harm, and chronic suicidal thoughts and behaviours.
PAYMENT AND CANCELLATION POLICY
The fee for one parent is $1,800 for one parent ($150 per week) and $2,880 for two parents ($240 per week). GST is not charged on our services.
Payment is due each week. We accept Visa, Mastercard, and e-transfer. Participants are welcome to leave credit card information on file or pay in full in advance.
Please note, we do not have a cancellation policy for group. Payment is to hold a participant’s spot in the group. If a participant is not able to attend a group session for any reason, regardless if they provide notice in advance or not, the participant is still billed for the missed session ($150/one parent, $240/two parents).
Please consult your insurance provider directly to see if this service is eligible for reimbursement. Dr. Michel’s name and registration number will be on the receipts.
FAQ
1.My child’s mother and I are divorced, can we take the same class?
Yes, and you would also be eligible for the 20% discount.
2.I’m a step-parent, can I take the class?
Yes, although there is a limit of 2 parents per child (i.e., not both biological parents and step-parents).
3.I’m a single parent, but my child’s behaviour affects their sibling. Can the sibling join?
This course is designed for those in parental roles in the child’s life and not siblings.
4.I see my child once a month, is this good for me?
Yes, learning parenting skills tailored to your emotionally reactive child can strengthen that relationship, even when there is limited time together.
5.My child is in a group home, is this course good for me?
Yes, learning DBT parenting skills can help resolve ongoing conflicts and provide the foundation for rebuilding a stronger relationship with your child, whether or not they live with you.
6.I’m not able to attend each week because of work, can my partner and I swap out weeks?
Consistent attendance each week is necessary to sufficiently learn the skills taught in this course; participation is not transferable. If you think you will be away for more than 1 week, we encourage you to enroll in a different semester.
7.I’m going to be away for three weeks, are recordings of this class available?
Recordings of this course are not available. If you know you will be missing more than 1 week, we encourage you to enroll in a different semester.
8.Will this course address my child’s BPD, ADHD, substance abuse problems, cutting, suicide attempts or other mental health problems?
This course is not intended to directly change your child’s behaviour or treat their disorder. It is designed to teach you new skills to better support your child’s emotional needs and decrease the frequent parent-child conflicts. This change often allows children to address their issues in their own treatment more effectively.
9.My partner and I have very different approaches to parenting and they are not interested in changing, can I come on my own?
Yes, you can learn and model effective techniques for parenting an emotionally reactive child. This may provide your partner with the opportunity to see how a different approach with your child can benefit the entire family.
10.My other child is completely opposite to their sibling. Does this mean I will have to have two different parenting approaches?
Although the approach we teach is meant to address the challenges in parenting your emotionally reactive child, the skills are often very helpful even with children who do not have high emotional needs.
11.I’m scared that my child will hit me. Will this course help me with these situations?
This course will teach you ways to deescalate the emotionally volatile interactions in which aggressive behaviours sometimes occur. However, there may specific situations that are better addressed in individual consultation with Dr. Michel or another provider.
12.I’m worried that by validating my child, I will have to give in. For example, my daughter is constantly asking for money to buy makeup. Does validating mean I give her money when she wants?
This course will teach validation as it is practised in DBT, which involves understanding your child’s perspective even if you don’t agree with it. You will learn that you can validate your child’s experience while still upholding your family’s values and rules.
13.My son often makes threatens to hurt himself if I tell him no, like if I don’t buy him the latest iPhone. Will this help?
Situations like these are very scary for a parent. In this course you will learn how to deescalate emotionally heated interactions, then validate and set limits that are in line with your family’s values.
14.Will my insurance cover the cost of this course?
You will need to contact your insurance company directly to determine whether it will cover the cost. Receipts will list Dr. Michel as the provider and will include the number of hours. In our experience, some insurance providers will cover group services and some may not.
15.Can my child become a client of the DBT Centre while I’m taking this course?
Yes, your child may be in therapy elsewhere, a current client of the DBT Centre of Vancouver, or may be on the waitlist.
16.Does my child need to be in therapy while I take this course?
No, there are no requirements for your child.
REGISTRATION
There are a limited number of seats. Registration is on a first come-first serve basis.
Please email info@dbtvancouver.com for more information or to express your interest in registration.