Dialectical Behaviour Therapy [DBT] provides tools and strategies to increase client and therapist motivation, facilitate change in multiple intransigent, severe disorders, and manage crises and difficult problems that arise in session (e.g., dissociation, attacking the therapist, refusing to speak, etc.).

This workshop is intended for experienced mental health professionals, whether experienced with DBT or simply interested in increasing one’s range of interventions with difficult-to-treat patients. Topics will include the detail and nuance of first sessions of individual psychotherapy in DBT, assessment and treatment of life-threatening behaviours and therapy-interfering behaviours, and coordination of care.

Objectives:

·         Describe how individual psychotherapy combines with other service modes to provide comprehensive treatment

·         Describe how to develop motivated clients

·         Identify specific strategies and change procedures to address severe and longstanding problems

·         Generate interventions to change behaviours that interfere with therapeutic progress, including how to better observe one's own personal and therapeutic limits

·         Describe the application of dialectical principles and strategies to avoid and resolve therapeutic impasses and power struggles with clients and increase effective coordination with other treatment providers

It is recommended that participants read Linehan’s (1993) Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder (NY: Guilford Press) and Linehan’s (1993) Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (NY: Guilford Press) prior to attending the workshop.

Entry requirements
This course is open to health professionals who have an understanding of DBT and wish to further their knowledge through formalised study in the area.   Completion of this course or one of Mental Health Australia's other DBT programs is a pre-requisite for the Intensive DBT Course