Why do so many clients get stuck—unwilling or unable to move forward with their lives? Often it’s because therapists haven’t learned the necessary skills to help them function and behave more effectively. Dialectical behavior therapy offers a solution, with hundreds of skills that can enhance awareness, improve relationships, regulate emotions, and tolerate distress effectively. These skills help clients get better while enhancing therapist effectiveness and well-being. In this workshop, you’ll learn some of the most powerful DBT skills for change that you can start using immediately—and seamlessly integrating into your current approach. You’ll discover how to:

• Bring clients back to the present moment when they dissociate or become flooded with emotion or fused with thoughts
• Help clients tolerate painful emotions so that they don’t make difficult situations worse
• Teach clients to determine whether emotions fit the facts, and how to reduce emotions when they’re getting in the way
• Provide clients with simple tools to communicate more effectively to get their needs met while also maintaining relationships
• Effectively engage clients in the process of learning and strengthening psychological skills

Britt Rathbone, LCSW-C, treats adolescents and trains therapists as director of Rathbone & Associates. He’s the coauthor of multiple professional and parenting books.