2023 Cohort | Comprehensive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Certification

September 11, 2023 - February 5, 2024
March 2024 - August 2024 (Consultation Sessions)

80 hours | 80 CEs

Join Michele Galietta, Ph.D., as she presents a certification program on Comprehensive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). This program contains two parts: the first part is a 20-week didactic that begins on September 11, 2023, and runs through February 5, 2024. The second part is a 6-month (March-August, 2024) consultation component with monthly sessions to review DBT work with clients and ensure adherence to the DBT model. Upon successful completion of both parts, participants will be awarded a certification in DBT. To ensure individualized attention and focus, we have limited the enrollment size for this certification program.

Part 1: Each week, participants will receive approximately 2 hours of training content to complete asynchronously. There will be 10 live Consultation sessions during the first 20 weeks to provide participants an opportunity to ask questions, engage in discussion about the training content, and practice DBT skills in a group format.

Part 2: Each month for 6 months, participants will meet in small groups with Dr. Galietta to review diary cards, session notes, treatment summaries, and case conceptualizations for current clients.

Participation requirements:

This comprehensive DBT training and certification is designed specifically for individual therapists or skills trainers who are currently engaged in providing DBT to clients.

The cohort format of this training provides the opportunity to be part of a DBT team, allowing the licensed clinician to complete all required aspects to become certified in DBT.

This program provides participants with a thorough introduction to standard DBT, as well as specific adaptations and strategies useful with a variety of adult and juvenile forensic settings (e.g., jails/prisons, forensic hospitals, juvenile justice settings, and probation.) DBT can reduce problem behaviors in individual clients and also functions to stabilize the milieu by employing Eastern principles of acceptance and compassion paired with careful application of behaviorism. The program discusses comprehensive DBT in forensic settings and the research supporting this intervention.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive cognitive behavioral treatment that is increasingly being used in a variety of health settings. Comprehensive DBT has been found to have great practical utility for the reduction of violence and self-harm. DBT Skills are an essential component of comprehensive DBT, and some evidence suggests that skills alone, with case management, may be efficacious for less acute individuals as well. The primary focus of this program is the content and delivery of the skills component of DBT with an emphasis on relevant adaptations for forensic clients (e.g., substance abuse, skills for reducing violence & obsessional thinking).

Throughout the program, didactic presentations with relevant case examples alternate with participant practice of DBT skills. This program contains a discussion of strategies for successful implementation and interactive discussion with participants about the potential application of DBT Skills to their settings/populations. Participants learn how to apply and teach the effective DBT skills of Core Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Distress Tolerance, and Emotion Regulation. Participants also learn how to apply and teach the effective DBT skills of Core Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Distress Tolerance, and Emotion Regulation.

The following texts are required for this training program:

• Linehan, M. M. (1993a). Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. New York: Guilford Press.


• Linehan, M. M. (2014a). DBT Skills Training Manual (2nd ed.) New York, NY: Guilford Press


• Linehan, M. M. (2014b). DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.