DBT Skills Groups

DBT skills training groups teach skills in four different areas: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Emotion regulation. The skills help individuals increase their ability to solve problems, cope with difficult situations effectively, and manage their emotions that can be overwhelming at times. The skills help individuals who are suffering to find peace in their lives. We have skills groups for teens, adults, and parents/caretakers. While some individuals will benefit from a comprehensive DBT program which includes individual therapy, coaching, skills group and the therapist participating on team consultation, others can benefit from skills groups alone or while seeing a therapist outside the Center.

DBT Skills For PTSD:
An Educational Group

Learn skills to engage and stay in the present moment, and manage and understand trauma-related emotions more effectively. You will learn anti-dissociation skills, tools for managing intrusion, and ways to be more passionate and supportive of yourself. 24 week commitment is required.

Trauma Informed Yoga

Trauma informed yoga (TIY) is intended to create space to cultivate a sense of safety and encourage people to stay present within their bodies. It is not only rooted in the ancient techniques of Yoga but also in modern research in the fields of neuropsychology and physiology. Trauma informed yoga can help you focus on the present moment, recognize what is happening in your body and feel more connected and balanced. Trauma informed yoga focuses on attending to your internal cues rather than focusing on external poses to provide the knowledge and skills to amplify your innate ability to self-soothe and heal. In a trauma informed yoga class, many options and choices are offered in each step so that you can make their own choices about what feels right. 

Learn DBT Skills Through the Creative Arts

Artistic expression meets therapeutic practice by utilizing the power of art to deepen the exploration of self and incorporate creative approaches for DBT skill practice in day-to-day life. Discover new ways to manage emotions, reduce stress, and connect with others while releasing your creative potential. No prior art experience is necessary.

Create artwork depicting a persona metaphor for your current state of mind as well as your Wise Mind.

A way to consider the skill of radical acceptance by visualizing the suffering as a misery monster and/or your relationship to that suffering.

Mindfulness exercise to trace the hand and within the hand naming strengths/what you want to keep and nurture. On the outside naming outside supports and activities. 

Identify important values, connect to personal goals, and create a collage depicting the value on one side and  the barriers to living that value on the other side of a 5×7 index card. Make a commitment to a specific action in service of a chosen value.

Mudras are widely used in the practice of yoga to cultivate balance and harmony by utilizing the hands in specific positions to have an effect on the physical body. Follow up by exploring persona mantras and then creating bracelets that represent the personal mantra.

Blackout poems (with a page from a book, blacking out various words to create a poem) and then engagement in an “I am Poem” exercise. This exercise encourages seeing yourself from different perspectives.

 Learn about mandalas, and how to use them for relieving stress.

Learn what zines are and instructions on how to create your own personal zine.

Dungeons & Dragons DBT Skills Groups

Attending skills group can be fun when you are learning the skills while playing a game. The adolescent Dungeons & Dragons group will teach DBT skills of Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation and Interpersonal Effectiveness while playing D&D and using the skills in the situations that come up in the game. This approach can be motivating for teens and enhances their learning. The teens will get practice recalling skills from memory, role play practice and working together as a team. Parents are strongly encouraged to join the family group as part of the program.

Dungeons and Dragons RO Skills Group (Adults)
The adult D & D group focuses on skills from RO DBT and is designed for the individual who tends to be overcontrolled. Dungeons & Dragons functions to provide social exposure, increasing emotional expression, practicing flexibility and openness, trying new experiences, commitment to a group and rehearsal of new behaviors while also providing structure and fun.

See photos & learn more about the benefits of the Dungeons and Dragons Skills Group below.

Kids having fun and bonding over a shared activity. So we start with a game designed by game designers over the past 50 years to be immersive and fun. We purposefully avoid starting with a game designed by therapists to do psych-education. (Totally unfun.) To make a game part of a weekly structure of learning and acquiring new skills, it needs to be really fun, something kids look forward to every week. (And Dungeons and Dragons is really fun!)

Research shows that you need to feel safe to learn something new. It is hard to learn algebra when you are worried about the bully sitting next to you, what people are thinking of your shoes, or the embarrassing thing you said five minutes ago. When you are genuinely having fun, it is almost impossible to feel unsafe. When you’re learning something while laughing and having fun with friends, you get more frequent practice recalling the skill from memory, you get more practice with it and you remember it for much longer. Fun provides motivation for recalling and rehearsing a skill. Fun makes recalling and rehearsing of the skill intrinsically rewarding. When the brain is motivated and rewarded, it assigns importance.

Kids know they will be taught skills while we’re playing D&D. “Tricking them into learning,” if you will. Yes, they’ll be discovering magic items, potions, plot hooks, and side quests. But they will also be discovering instructions on Mindfulness, how to”Build Mastery,” and “Cope Ahead,” for example. Yes, skills will be important at some point later this week. Most teenagers will acquiesce to that point. But what makes it important right now? What makes it fun right now? Well, you know that lava pit you have to pole-vault across to get “The Silver Key?” Tell me how you “Cope Ahead” with it. How do you use mindfulness with the obstacle? What abilities have you been practicing that would help you “Build Mastery?” If they can answer one of these questions, or help a party member use it, they get an in-game advantage (they may be given a chance to re-roll a low die roll, or add a certain amount to it, for example).

So then I ask them, “Tell me exactly how Conan does slow, deep breathing, willing hands, and half-smile while walking across the tight rope. You can act it out if you want.” Now, all of a sudden, giving exact (although fervent) instructions is exciting. And they can get the behavioral rehearsal, so they are recalling the skill from memory and practicing with their body.

Want To Join A Skills Group? Contact Us Today!

Both group and individual sessions are available, online and in person.