Workshops

The DBT Skills: A Two Day Training – 2025

Presented by: Alexander L. Chapman, Ph.D., R.Psych., and John Wagner, Ph.D., R.Psych.

Dates: Thursday, May 8 and Friday, May 9, 2025
Time: 9 AM – 4:30 PM PDT (11 AM – 6:30 PM CDT / 12 PM – 7:30 PM EDT)
Location: Zoom 

About DBT

As a comprehensive, cognitive behavioural treatment, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) consists of individual therapy, group skills training, a therapist consultation team, and between-session telephone coaching. Originally designed to help chronically suicidal individuals, DBT has become a well-supported treatment for clients with complex mental health problems. DBT has demonstrated effectiveness for adults with borderline personality disorder, including those with co-occurring substance use disorders or eating disorders, as well as suicidal or self-injuring adolescents. Findings have shown that DBT also has promise for the treatment of adolescents with bipolar disorder and children with serious behavioural or emotional dysregulation, complex trauma, major depression, and transdiagnostic emotional regulation difficulties. Further, evidence has shown that DBT significantly reduces healthcare costs for complex clients. 

About the Workshop

In this workshop, we focus on the four modules DBT skills:

Mindfulness – Attend to, experience, and live in the present moment
Distress Tolerance – Tolerate distress, avoid making things worse in a crisis, and accept reality as it is
Interpersonal Effectiveness – Build healthy relationships while maintaining self-respect
Emotion Regulation – Understand and manage overwhelming emotions

Typically, in DBT, skills are taught in weekly, 2-2.5-hour groups that run much like classes, with two therapists leading each group. Even in the absence of a standard, comprehensive DBT program, however, therapists often find it helpful to incorporate evidence-based DBT skills into their individual therapy sessions.

This workshop will begin with a brief overview of DBT skills training, how skills fit into DBT, and address any questions participants have about the DBT framework. Subsequently, we will begin by teaching mindfulness skills, which are foundational to all of the other DBT skills. Following this, we will cover the remaining DBT skills: distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

Teaching methods will include didactic presentations, demonstrations, video/audio clips, experiential exercises, and active practice by participants. This will be an active and engaging workshop.

Learning Objectives

• • Describe and discuss how skills training fits into DBT.
  • Describe and discuss core mindfulness, including the states of mind and what and how skills.
  • Describe and discuss the goals of distress tolerance skills, along with some core crisis survival and reality acceptance skills.
  • Describe and discuss DBT emotion regulation skills, including skills to help clients understand and better manage difficult emotions.

This two- day training will cover the following sets of skills:

Mindfulness: • What is mindfulness? • The states of mind • Observe, describe & participate • Non-judgmental, one-mindful & effective

Distress Tolerance • Crisis survival skills • Pros & cons • Radical acceptance • Willingness vs willfulness • Mindfulness of current thought

Emotion Regulation: • What good are emotions • Model for describing emotions • Problem-solving • Opposite action • Reducing vulnerability to negative emotions • Mindfulness of current emotion

Interpersonal Effectiveness: • Priorities in interpersonal relationships • Intensity for asking/saying no • DEAR MAN
• GIVE • FAST

Who Should Attend

This training is geared toward mental health professionals who would like to learn more about DBT, with a focus on DBT skills training. No prior DBT training is required.

Counsellors, psychologists, physicians, psychiatrists, case managers, social workers, nurses, and other clinicians working on a mental health team as well as therapists working in a solo or group practice will learn a valuable treatment model, develop their repertoire of clinical skills, and learn skills to help complex clients.

The following clinicians will find this workshop most helpful:

• • Clinicians who would like an introduction to DBT skills.
  • Clinicians who wish to begin a DBT skills group
  • Clinicians already running a group who wish to improve their skills
  • Clinicians who simply wish to incorporate DBT skills into their everyday practice, or even their everyday lives.

Recommended Reading

Participants are encouraged to purchase and read the text DBT Skills Training Manual by Marsha Linehan. The manual is available via:

Chapters/Indigo: DBT Skills Training Manual

Guilford Press: DBT Skills Training Manual

Purchasers of this manual get online access to all skills training handouts and worksheets.

Format & Schedule

This workshop will take place via Zoom. Participants are expected to log on through a secure wi-fi connection with access to a microphone and camera and work in a private office or room.

Recordings of the workshop will not be available.

Tentative schedule for all three day (times in PST)

9am – 10:30 First session
10:30 – 10:45 Break
10:45 – Noon Second session
Noon – 1pm Lunch
1pm – 2:30 Third session
2:30 – 2:45 Break
2:45 – 4:15 Fourth session
4:15 – 4:30pm Wrap up

Participants that are joining from outside British Columbia, please note the time difference.

About the Presenters

Alexander L. Chapman, Ph.D., R. Psych., is the President of the DBT Centre, Professor in the Department of Psychology at Simon Fraser University (SFU), as well as a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified DBT Clinician™. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship working with Dr. Marsha Linehan, the developer of DBT, and was among the first cohort of certified DBT clinicians by the Linehan Board of Certification. In addition, Dr. Chapman has published 5 books focused on DBT, along with several others related to evidence-based practice or coping skills for consumers. He regularly consults with mental health providers working with complex psychological problems and has provided workshops across Canada and the US. Full bio.

 

 

John Wagner, Ph.D., R. Psych., the Director of the DBT Centre of Vancouver, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, as well as a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified DBT Clinician™. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship working with Dr. Marsha Linehan, the developer of DBT, and was among the first cohort of certified DBT clinicians by the Linehan Board of Certification.  He regularly consults with mental health providers working with complex psychological problems and has provided workshops across Canada. Full bio. 

 

Both are enthusiastic presenters and greatly enjoy working with clinicians to enhance their skills with evidence based treatments.

Continuing Education Credits

The DBT Centre of Vancouver is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. The DBT Centre of Vancouver maintains responsibility for the program as a provider of continuing education (CE) activities. At the end of the workshop, participants will receive a letter of attendance confirming the number of credits awarded (1 credit/hour). This workshop is eligible for eighteen 12 CE credits. Unfortunately we are not able to award CME credits for physicians.

The CPA’s approval of an individual, group, or organization as a CE Sponsor or Provider is restricted to the activities described in the approved application or annual report form. The CPA’s approval does not extend to any other CE activity the Sponsor or Provider might offer. In granting its approval, the CPA assumes no legal or financial obligations to Sponsors, Providers, or to those individuals who might participate in a Sponsor or Provider’s CE activities or programs. Further, responsibility for the content, provision, and delivery of any CE activity approved by the CPA remains that of the CE Sponsor or Provider. The CPA disclaims all legal liability associated with the content, provision, and delivery of the approved CE activity.

Cancellation Policy

The DBT Centre of Vancouver will provide refunds up to 7 days prior to a scheduled workshop and are subject to a $75 admin fee.