Learning Objectives for the DBT Skills for Adolescents and Families course

Last updated over 3 years ago


  • Describe the rationale, structure and targets for skills training
  • Discuss methods about how to engage and manage skills groups with teens and families
  • Identify how to apply orientation and commitment strategies to teens and families;
  • Describe the biosocial theory of emotional dysregulation among youth
  • Identify the rationale and methods of teaching mindfulness skills
  • Describe how to teach distress tolerance skills
  • Discuss the adolescent-family dialectical dilemmas, dialectical thinking and acting and how to teach validation and behavior change strategies to teens and parents (walking the middle path skills)
  • Identify methods of teaching emotion regulation skills
  • Identify examples of how to effectively teach interpersonal effectiveness skills 
  • Identify how to provide skills coaching in individual, group, parent and family sessions