Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Intensive Group

What is DBT?

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) has been developed for clients with emotional challenges, including severe difficulties with distress tolerance and emotion regulation skills. It teaches strategies to better manage these aspects of living in addition to mindfulness and relationship effectiveness skills. This group is based on the work of Marsha Linehan and has become the gold standard for the treatment of a range of disorders including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder. DBT has also been found to effectively treat depression, substance dependence and eating disorders.

Programme Overview

The essential components of the skills group programme are skills focussed around 4 domains:

• Mindfulness Skills — The core skill of DBT: This is about learning how to accept life as it is in the moment. The mindfulness skills in DBT come from eastern meditative skills which teach us how to focus our attention.
• Distress Tolerance Skills – These build on mindfulness skills to provide distress tolerance or crisis survival skills. These are skills for learning to bear emotional pain, without making the situation worse.
• Emotion Regulation Skills — Again, based on mindfulness, i.e., learning how to observe, describe and participate in an emotion – and learning that the experience of emotion is not the same as the behaviour we do after feeling emotional. Through this, we learn strategies to accept and also change painful emotions, and to increase more positive mood states.
• Relationship Effectiveness Skills — Relationships can be hard for people with intense emotions. Skills from the other modules can also help people manage emotions in relationships. The skills taught in this module are very practical ones, e.g. How do I go about getting my needs met without damaging a relationship? How do I
• Relationship Effectiveness Skills — Relationships can be hard for people with intense emotions. Skills from the other modules can also help people manage emotions in relationships. The skills taught in this module are very practical ones, e.g. How do I go about getting my needs met without damaging a relationship? How do I learn to say no to people? How can I ask for what I want?

Who is the group for?

• any kiritaki over 18+
• inclusive of men and women of different cultures, ethnic backgrounds and physical abilities
• kiritaki will be in a stable therapeutic relationship

Referral Criteria

Kiritaki eligible for participation in the DBT skills group will be those with an accepted ACC sensitive claim and are in the Support to Wellbeing Package B of their ACC SCS treatment. They will have approval by ACC to attend the DBT skills training group; will have problems with emotion dysregulation; will have an appropriate level of cognitive functioning i.e., able to read and write and fill in diary cards and other homework forms; be appropriate to the group; and preferably be in treatment with a DBT informed therapist.

Hours to Request

Supplier: South Coast Psychology G09884
1x SCSGTT: Triage for Group-based Therapy
104x SCSDBT: Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Group-based Therapy