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DBT Skills for Adolescents and Families

About This Online Training Course

Adolescents face unique emotional and relational challenges - and so do the therapists and families supporting them. In this course, you’ll learn how to effectively teach Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills to adolescents and their families - directly from the developers who adapted DBT skills training for this population.

Drs Marsha Linehan, Alec Miller, and Jill Rathus offer an engaging, hands-on approach to using DBT skills with teens and their families in real-world settings. You’ll learn how to orient teens and parents to skills training, build buy-in, and teach the five DBT skills modules adapted for adolescents—Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Distress Tolerance, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Walking the Middle Path, a module developed specifically to address parent-teen conflict and family dynamics.

This training gives you clear strategies for working across multiple formats, including multi-family groups, individual sessions, parent-focused work, and family skills sessions. Through clinical demonstrations and practical guidance, you’ll see how to teach DBT skills in ways that resonate with teens and support lasting change in family relationships.

A Course Designed for Everyday Clinical Use

This course gives you a clear framework for applying DBT skills with teens and families. You’ll learn how to:

  • Introduce skills in ways that are relatable, engaging, and developmentally appropriate

  • Work effectively with parent-teen emotional dynamics and communication

  • Manage group behavior—including therapy-interfering behaviors—and keep sessions emotionally safe and focused

  • Use DBT skills with teens experiencing anxiety, mood issues, behavioral challenges, and suicidal thoughts

  • Adapt your teaching approach for different levels of need, readiness, and family structure

  • Conduct a graduation ceremony to mark the completion of skills training

DBT Skills for Adolescents and Families
Includes free e-book
Valued $60
DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents
$650
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Enrollments close on December 1
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Learn From the Developers of DBT for Adolescents

This course is led by the clinical developers of DBT for adolescents:

  • Marsha Linehan, creator of Dialectical Behavior Therapy

  • Alec Miller, co-developer of DBT for adolescents and the DBT Skills in Schools program

  • Jill Rathus, co-developer of DBT for adolescents and the DBT Skills in Schools program

With deep expertise in DBT, adolescent treatment, and family dynamics, they bring you a training grounded in research, real-world clinical insight, and compassionate care. Through demonstrations, didactic teaching, and practical examples, you’ll learn how to deliver DBT skills effectively in youth and family contexts.

Jill Rathus, Marsha Linehan, Alec Miller

Course Overview

Course Modules

Course excerpts

 
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Why Learn DBT Skills for Adolescents and Families?

Adolescents and their families often experience intense emotional ups and downs, conflict, and communication breakdowns. DBT skills offer concrete tools for emotional regulation, relationship repair, and navigating family dynamics.

Whether you’re working in a school, clinic, hospital, or private practice, this course helps you:

  • Teach DBT skills to teens and families with engagement and confidence

  • Use the five core adolescent modules, including Walking the Middle Path

  • Support parents and caregivers to build emotional insight and respond more effectively

  • Deliver DBT skills in group, individual, or family formats

  • Support teens in building emotion regulation, self-awareness, and resilience

Jill Rathus therapy demonstration
Your DBT Learning Experience Includes:

  • Beautifully produced video lessons that guide you through DBT concepts and skills step-by-step

  • Therapy demonstrations showing how to teach skills in individual, group, and family settings

  • Downloadable tools and handouts to support practical application in your sessions

  • An interactive forum where you can ask questions, share experiences, and get direct feedback from the treatment developers, Drs. Alec Miller and Jill Rathus

You don’t need to be DBT-certified to benefit from this training. The course is designed to be accessible, flexible, and immediately useful for work with adolescents, regardless of your background or therapeutic orientation.

Enrollments

We're happy to help if you can't attend the current intake. Please contact our customer service once your purchase is finalized, and we can enroll you in the intake of your choice. If you would like to request an invoice, please fill out the form here.

Alec Miller therapy demonstration

What People Say About This Course

98.4%
of 1,757 surveyed course participants would recommend this course to a colleague.

It's very well organized, captures my attention, and maintains it, is never boring, it is very well studied for the way adults and professionals learn.

Mariateresa Volpe

Psychologist - Rosemère, Québec, Canada

Paul BlankenshipCounselor - Fort Worth, TX, USA

My sincerest gratitude to Dr. Marsha Linehan, Dr. Jill Rathus, and Dr. Alec Miller for the exceptional content and presentation of the DBTA material. It was thorough, concise, evidence-based, informative, practical, enjoyable, and, above all, presented in a way that made it highly applicable in a variety of settings. Thank you for putting together such a high-quality presentation and formatting it in nice easy chunks to digest. Worth every penny and second of time spent!

Ian Patrick MacleodLicensed Professional Counselor - Whistler, BC, Canada

Very clearly presented, informative, and applicable and ample examples provided through demonstrations. I like how I can quickly apply the course content to real world practice with my clients

Jasmine Victoria Idrogo, MS, NCC, LPC-ALicensed Professional Counselor - San Antonio, Texas

I have learned so much and it is taught very well. I enjoyed learning practical ways to apply this to my clients. Also, I love how easy it is to navigate.

Brona KennedySocial Worker - Vancouver, BC, Canada

It's got a lot of info and it's self paced so it's possible to do when you have a busy work schedule. Lots of demos so not all just theory-based. I am enjoying being able to do it at my own pace. Stop and repeat videos and have handouts I can refer to later.

Continuing Education & Professional Development (CE/CME/CPD)

DBT Skills for Adolescents and Families is designed for mental health professionals, health professionals and coaches worldwide. On completion you'll receive an official certificate of completion, which can be submitted to registration bodies for CPD.

This course is accredited for 12 CE/CME credit hours for US licensed professionals:

  • Psychologists - 12 CE hours, APA — co-sponsored with Amedco, an APA-approved sponsor

  • Social workers - 12 general CE credits, ASWB ACE

  • Physicians - 12 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™, ACCME

  • Nurses - 12 contact hours, ANCC

  • Counselors, MFTs & addiction professionals - 12 hours, accepted by most US state boards via APA and ASWB ACE credit - see the state-by-state list

  • Approved CE activity with the New York State boards for Psychology, Social Work, Mental Health Counseling, and Marriage & Family Therapy.

View the full learner notification for this course (PDF) - includes complete accreditation statements, state board acceptance lists, learning objectives and faculty disclosures.

family therapy session

How Your Course Works

Build Skills Week by Week

New content is released weekly, designed to support steady learning and integration. You can follow the recommended schedule or move at your own pace.

Access Anytime for 12 months

You’ll have a full 12 months to explore the entire course, return to key ideas, and learn at your own pace. There's no set time to be online.

Supported While You Learn

Join our course forum to ask questions, share experiences, and connect with expert trainers and fellow professionals in a supportive environment.

Explore Bonus Content

Your course includes optional bonus content, so you can dig deeper into topics that matter most to you.

Download Free Digital Library

Download a library of extra tools and resources to enrich your learning and support your practice. Yours to keep!

Receive a Certificate

Receive a certificate and the option to earn CE / CME credits upon completion of your course.

Frequently asked questions

View all FAQs

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