Skills Workgroup Structure

This is more like a course than group therapy.  You will have a notebook and homework.  The assignments are DBT skills we want you to integrate into your life.  The last half of every class prepares you to do the homework and the first half of the next class is spent reviewing your experience of doing the homework.  Most participants initially worry about talking about their experience, but their worries don't seem to last.  Participants find hearing others experience to be one of the best parts of the class.  Some prospective participants worry the homework will be difficult.  It is easy to understand, yet challenging to use these new skills and give up old dysfunctional way of managing stress.  Like learning a musical instrument, dance, art or a sport, the more you practice the more skillful you become.

Skills Workgroup Content

There are four DBT skills modules Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Interpersonal Skills and Emotion Regulation. As shown in the table below, Mindfulness occurs every four weeks.  We add new group members on one of the Mindfulness classes that occur over the 12 weeks. After your 12 week introduction, payment is due at the beginning of the Mindfulness class.

 

Week
1	Mindfulness 1
2	Distress Tolerance 1
3	Distress Tolerance 2
4	Distress Tolerance 3
5	Mindfulness 2
6	Interpersonal Skill 1
7	Interpersonal Skill 2
8	Interpersonal Skill 3
9	Mindfulness 3
10	Emotion Regulation 1
11	Emotion Regulation 2
12	Emotion Regulation 3
13	Mindfulness 1a*
14	Distress Tolerance 1a
15	Distress Tolerance 2a
16	Distress Tolerance 3a
17	Mindfulness 2a
18	Interpersonal Skill 1a
19	Interpersonal Skill 2a
20	Interpersonal Skill 3a
21	Mindfulness 3a
22	Emotion Regulation 1a
23	Emotion Regulation 2a
24	Emotion Regulation 3a

* Different classes addressing the same ideas are present during week 13-24.  The cycle is repeated after 24 weeks.

Mindfulness is the experience of moment-to-moment nonjudgmental awareness.

Distress Tolerance skills are activities to do instead of  your problem behavior. 

Interpersonal Skills help you get what you want out of relationships without ruining them or your self-esteem.  

Emotion Regulation Skills help you understand emotions and deal with them skillfully.  Emotions control many peoples behavior including acting out or numbing in response to them.