Whilst DBT was originally developed for individuals who received the diagnosis of “borderline personality disorder” (BPD), it is now available to anyone with or without a formal diagnosis wishing to improve their ability to safely experience emotions, tolerate distress and manage impulsivity, mood swings, substance misuse and intense relationship patterns. DBT has also been shown to help those who experience emotion dysregulation in the wider context of living with ADHD and autism. It can assist you in coping effectively with extreme emotional sensitivity, eating difficulties, self-harm and other problematic urges, and manage feelings of anger, depression, anxiety or shame. We offer the programme live and online, in the same format as when delivered in-person.
When and How
The online DBT skills classes are provided live via Zoom on Mondays at 5:45pm-7:15pm, Tuesdays at 4pm-5:30pm and 6pm-7:30pm, Wednesdays at 3:30pm-5:30pm and 6pm-8pm and Thursdays 5:30pm-7:30pm. The idea is to commit to one of these groups and attend it weekly. You will be sent a link to the class by one of the facilitators at least 24 hours before the first session of each module. We also offer in-person DBT groups near King’s Cross on Saturdays at 10am and 12:15pm.
Entry Points
- The next entry point to the Monday 5:45pm-7:15pm group is on 24th June 2024 when the 8-week class in Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills is scheduled to begin. The fee is £680 (£85 x 12 sessions). It will be followed by modules in Core Mindfulness & Middle Path (19th August 2024), Distress Tolerance (7th October 2024) and Emotion Regulation (2nd December 2024). Sessions will not be held on Bank Holiday Mondays, i.e. 6th and 27th May, 26th August and 23rd and 30th December 2024.
- The next entry point to the Tuesday 4pm-5:30pm and 6pm-7:30pm groups is on 9th July 2024 when the 8-week module in Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills is scheduled to begin. The fee is £680 (£85 x 8 sessions). It will be followed by classes in Core Mindfulness & Middle Path (3rd September 2024), Distress Tolerance (15th October 2024) and Emotion Regulation (10th December 2024). Sessions will not be held on 24th and 31st December 2024.
- The next entry point to the Wednesday 3:30pm-5:30pm and 6pm-8pm groups* is on 22nd May 2024 when the 6-week module in Core Mindfulness & Middle Path Skills is scheduled to begin. The fee is £510 (£85 x 6 sessions). It will be followed by classes in Distress Tolerance (3rd July 2024), Emotion Regulation (28th August 2024) and Interpersonal Effectiveness (20th November 2024). Sessions will not be held on 25th December 2024 and 1st January 2025.
- The next entry point to the Thursday 5:30pm-7:30pm group* is on 2nd May 2024 when the 12-week module in Emotion Regulation Skills is scheduled to begin. The fee for this class is £1,020 (£85 x 12 sessions). It will be followed by modules in Interpersonal Effectiveness (25th July 2024), Core Mindfulness & Middle Path (19th September 2024) and Distress Tolerance (31st October 2024). Sessions will not be held on 26th December 2024 and 2nd January 2025.
- The next 10-week Advanced Relationship Skills in Action module will begin on 19th June April 2024 and be held weekly on Wednesdays from 6pm to 7:30pm via Zoom. The fee is £85 per session (£850).
* Should a lower number of participants sign up for (or attend) the 2-hour group we reserve the right to make alterations to the group structure, e.g. we will remove the break between the homework review and teaching part of the group and shorten the group to 90 minutes. This is because in smaller groups less time is required for mindfulness and homework review. The group might also be facilitated by one facilitator at a time instead of two.
What will I learn?
- 6-week Core Mindfulness and Middle Path module is designed to teach you how to increase your awareness levels, decrease reactivity, habitual behaviour and judgmentalness, train your attention, allow current moment experiences instead of suppressing, avoiding or constantly changing them, and how to be more compassionate towards yourself. This module will also teach you how to avoid taking extreme positions and instead acknowledge the validity of different positions and perspectives.
- 8-week Distress Tolerance module is centred on accepting difficult situations and emotions and finding ways to survive and tolerate the moment without engaging in problematic behaviours such as self-harm, conflict or impulsive substance misuse. You will learn how to respond to stressful and overwhelming emotions by engaging both your body and mind in the process. This module will cover both strategies of change and acceptance.
- 12-week Emotion Regulation module involves learning to recognise and label current emotions, identify obstacles to changing emotions, reduce emotional vulnerability and reactivity, increase positive emotions and harness a more positive long-term outlook, and change emotions that are unhelpful or unwarranted. This module will also teach you how to gradually decrease avoidance of feelings and become more comfortable experiencing emotions.
- 8-week Interpersonal Effectiveness module teaches strategies aimed at fostering healthy relationships, resolving internal and interpersonal conflict, and increasing self-confidence to act assertively. You will learn skills to ask for what you need, say no, set boundaries and cope with interpersonal tension in ways that influence others whilst enhancing the relationship and your self-respect. This module is of particular relevance to individuals who experience their relationships as chaotic, intense and unstable, and those who feel that their needs are never met in relationships.
- 10-week Advanced Relationship Skills in Action is a module for people who have attended the Interpersonal Effectiveness DBT module and want to enhance their relationship skills further. In this module you will learn about social engagement system and how interactions affect your nervous system and that of the other person, the theory and practice of dialectical thinking, balancing opposites, how to balance intense desire to influence someone with acceptance of the moment, validation of self and others and its impact on conflict resolution and emotion regulation, recovering from invalidation, building new relationships, getting people to like you and strategies for relational reinforcement. There will also be two practice sessions to immerse yourself in the application of the skills. You will be able to bring your own real life scenarios and receive suggestions from the group trainer on how to approach them skilfully.
Further information
The fee is £85 per live class (payable per module) and we offer a small number of concessionary places in the groups to people on low income. Please email us to outline your circumstances.
DBT classes are designed to be intensive and interactive, not where you passively watch the screen. You can expect to be challenged by the didactics, demonstrations and discussions. The aim of this approach is to encourage you to use this coaching to help you maximise your use of the tools that you will be learning.
The skills class can be attended in conjunction with individual DBT therapy as part of the comprehensive DBT programme, live and online, with the same format as when delivered in-person. For further information please visit the DBT Programme section of this website.
Practicalities
- Please reserve the required time to ensure that you are not disturbed and can concentrate fully throughout the duration of the class.
- For the best and most comfortable experience, attend the class on the computer or laptop instead of a mobile.
- Have the camera switched on.
- Make sure that all other programmes on your device are closed and that nothing can disrupt your internet connection.
- Remain in a confidential space.