DBT Skills for Adolescents and Families
Learn How to Apply DBT Skills With Adolescents and Their Families - From the Treatment Developers
About the course
Start date
Starts 25 August 2026Length
6 weeks | 12 hrs total (12 Months Access)Who this course is for
For Mental Health & Health ProfessionalsOrganization Enquiries
Find out moreAdolescents 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
$400
Save $250
DBT Skills for Adolescents and Families
Includes free e-book
Valued $57
Normally $650
Enroll now$400
Early Registration | Save $250
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 DBT Skills in Schools
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.
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
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
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What You'll Learn
Course modules
Week 1: An Introduction to DBT Skills
Module one
The Fundamentals of DBT
Module two
Adapting DBT Skills for Adolescents & Families
Module three
Building Commitment to Skills and Treatment Goals
Module four
Selecting Participants for Skill Class
Module five
Therapy Demonstration: Running an Orientation Group
Module six
Teaching the Biosocial Theory
Module seven
Practice Makes Perfect
Module eight
Weekly Summary and Quiz Questions
Week 2: The Mindfulness Skills
Module one
An Introduction to Mindfulness
Module two
Mindfulness in Sessions
Module three
Finding Your Wise Mind
Module four
The What Skills
Module five
The How Skills
Module six
Weekly Wrap up and Quiz Questions
Week 3: The Distress Tolerance Skills
Module one
An Introduction to Distress Tolerance Skills
Module two
Crisis Survival Skills: Distract with ACCEPTS
Module three
Crisis Survival Skills: Self Soothe
Module four
Crisis Survival Skills: Crisis Survival Kits
Module five
An Introduction to Reality Acceptance Skills
Module six
Reality Acceptance: Radical Acceptance
Module seven
Reality Acceptance: Willingness vs Wilfulness
Module eight
Reality Acceptance: Ways to Accept
Module nine
Weekly Wrap Up
Week 4: The Walking the Middle Path Skills
Module one
An Introduction to The Walking the Middle Path Skills
Module two
The Skill of Dialectics
Module three
The Skill of Validation
Module four
The Behavior Change Skills
Module five
Prioritizing Behavior Change Strategies
Module six
Weekly wrap up and quiz questions
Week 5: The Emotion Regulation Skills
Module one
An introduction to Emotion Regulation
Module two
Understanding Emotions
Module three
Reducing Emotional Vulnerability Part 1
Module four
Reducing Emotional Vulnerability Part 2
Module five
Changing Unwanted Emotions
Module six
Mindfulness of Current Emotion
Module seven
Weekly wrap up and quiz questions
Week 6: The Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills
Module one
Introduction to Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills
Module two
What Gets in the Way
Module three
The Give Skills
Module four
The DEAR MAN Skills
Module five
DEAR MAN in a Family Session
Module six
FAST Skill
Module seven
The Think Skills
Module eight
Coaching a Teen Who Leaves a Skills Session When Dyregulated
Module nine
Graduation
Module Ten
Course Wrap Up and Final Quiz Questions
Course excerpts
What People Say About This Course
Paul BlankenshipCounselor - Fort Worth, TX, USAMy 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!
Pamela MoranSocial Worker - Harrisburg, PennsylvaniaExcellent training, can't say enough about how helpful it is and how important this work is with emotionally dysregulated kids and parents who struggle with how to best respond.
Kim EatonPsychologist - AustraliaThe online materials are fantastic. Videos and demonstrations bring materials to life. I also like the demonstrations; linking adolescent material to parents and vice versa.
Elissa DoughertyPsychologist - Little Rock, AR, USAQuality is fantastic (even small things like appearance, images, navigation); demonstrations are excellent, love that the videos are short- makes it easy to get through the content and stay motivated :); love all the examples provided in every video, so helpful!
Siobhan McCarthySocial Worker - Toronto, Ontario, CanadaVery informative, love the exercises and the group format for parents which I believe less threatening than individual family therapy. I also like the ability to access it on my own time schedule.
Heather Barnett VeaguePsychologist - Concord, Massachusetts, USAI find the training, particularly the skills training demonstrations very helpful and instructive. I have learned about DBT before, and have read books, but seeing experts teach skills in action has been really useful and I'm already adding to my clinical sessions with new information.
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.
