The Use of Metaphors and Storytelling to Teach DBT Skills

3 Hours | 3 CEs

This on-demand professional training program on The Use of Metaphors and Storytelling to Teach DBT Skills is presented by James J. Esmail, PsyD.

This program begins with an overview of the research on the use of metaphors and storytelling in not only psychotherapy but in a variety of fields, including business and the non-profit world. This not only educates but teaches skills and motivates persons for significant behavioral change.

Examples of metaphors and storytelling to teach DBT skills across the 4 modules are presented. Emphasis on how using metaphors and stories helps clients not only understand DBT skills but to motivates practice and implementation of the skills. This program enables participants to utilize metaphors and storytelling to teach DBT skills to a variety of populations.

Suitable for both seasoned DBT group leaders and those considering initiating a DBT group, this program is a resourceful asset. It equips attendees with tools to sculpt valuable group experiences while ensuring the practical applications and benefits of the teachings are made evident to group members. This program provides participants with the unique ability to adapt and apply metaphors and storytelling to teach DBT skills across a wide array of populations.

In her intro to her 1993 volume Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder, Marsha Linehan points out the need to teach Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) through metaphors and stories (p.209). Thinking in metaphors is one of the crucial building blocks that allows humans to engage in abstract reasoning. The ability to compare something that is abstract, complex, and difficult to understand to something more concrete and tangible has allowed humans to go beyond very simple cognition to understand the more complex realities of life (Landau, Robinson, and Meier, 2014). DBT skills training continues to receive empirical support (McCauley, et al. 2018; Navarro-Haro, 2019; Harned & Botanav, 2016) for both its intended population (self-harming individuals) but also broader applications (anxiety, substance abuse, enhancing social and global functioning).