t: 0116 241 8331 e: office@apt.ac
How to become a DBT therapist.
If you are a mental health service that wants to include a DBT service in what you offer.
Then your first step is to select those in your team who are to be involved in the DBT Service, and then to arrange for the Extended Training in DBT (see below) for them all. It is probably best to have the courses brought exclusively to you, either face-to-face or remotely via Zoom or Teams, or a mixture of face-to-face (perhaps for Teaching the Life Skills at the heart of DBT™ and The DBT Masterclass) and remote (possibly for DBT Essentials). Contact us by phone or email.
If you are a mental health professional who wants to know about DBT and specialise in it.
Then you will want to attend the Extended Training in DBT courses (see below). This will give you a good degree of proficiency from which to build your expertise and specialisation. Unless you have at least 5 colleagues who also want to attend, it will probably be best for you to attend the ‘Open’ versions of the courses, where you will meet other professionals of like mind.
If you are a mental health professional who wants to know about DBT to include it in your repertoire.
Start off by attending DBT Essentials, this will give you a good overview and important knowledge and skills, so you will be able to make a judgement about how far you want to develop your expertise from that point. You can attend DBT Essentials as a Zoom-based live ‘Open’ course, or as a self-paced learning ‘Anytime’ course.
If you are NOT a mental health professional but want to study DBT to become a DBT Therapist.
Some people, for example, teachers, electricians, financial advisers, want a change of direction and may want to become a DBT therapist. Courses from the Association for Psychological Therapies are not designed for this as they are 'post-qualification courses'. If you are seeking a change in direction you will no doubt be giving it a lot of thought, and we send you all our best wishes for it, but unfortunately that is not what APT courses are designed for.
DBT training.
The Association for Psychological Therapies (APT) is a leading provider of DBT training in the UK and Ireland and offers various DBT courses for mental health professionals to attend.
DBT Training available from the APT:
The Association for Psychological Therapies (APT) provides the following training in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) .
DBT Essentials.
A 3-day course.
Instruction in the key components of DBT for those who want to add them to their repertoire without necessarily becoming 'a DBT therapist', and for those thinking of taking the first step in becoming a specialised DBT therapist.
DBT brings together a series of skills and techniques which are powerful and well chosen ones, for working with personality disorder as well as in other areas. Many people want to familiarise themselves with these skills without necessarily becoming a DBT therapist exclusively, and this 3-day course is for you if you are one of those people as well as if you are thinking of taking the first step in becoming a DBT therapist. As well as covering the 'overall concept of DBT', it covers its 'essential elements', namely the concepts of: Validation; Metaphor; Relentless Problem Solving; and Contingency Management, and the skills of: Mindfulness; Distress Tolerance; Interpersonal Effectiveness; and Emotional Regulation.
Teaching the Life Skills at the heart of DBT™
A 3-day course.
Running skills development groups is an important part of becoming proficient in DBT, and this course provides the coaching and practice to develop such skills.
This course lasts 3 days and is all about learning how to run groups for your clients to help them become skilled in key areas of relevance for them. The rationale is that patients need not only to be motivated, gain insights and knowledge etc, but usually also need to acquire skills in; Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, and Distress tolerance.
The DBT Masterclass.
A 4-day course.
By attending the DBT Masterclass you are expected to substantially develop both your knowledge of DBT and your skills.
The major teaching techniques on this course are case presentation and discussion, video-presentations, and reflective exercises (where you analyse and describe the practice of DBT in your workplace). You will gain most benefit from this course if you leave a gap of several months between attending DBT Essentials / Teaching the Life Skills at the heart of DBT™ and this one, developing your DBT skills in those months so your have material to present and discuss on this course.
DBT-A: DBT for Adolescents.
A 3-day course.
Instruction in the key components of DBT for those who want to apply DBT to working with adolescents.
DBT brings together a series of skills and techniques which are powerful and well chosen ones, and DBT-A focuses it on working with adolescents. Whether you want to simply learn about DBT and how to apply it effectively, or are thinking of establishing a full DBT service, this course has it covered. The course covers the delivery of effective DBT at its most relevant for adolescents, including: confusion about self, impulsivity, lack of emotional control, interpersonal problems, family problems and dilemmas, high risk behaviours, including suicidal behaviour and non-suicidal self-injury.
Extended Training in DBT.
A 10-day course.
Providing 60 hours of training, it includes three courses plus an exam, leading to appropriate APT accreditation.
This is the most comprehensive training in DBT we currently provide, and it has inbuilt APT accreditation to Level 4 for those who complete the relevant exams and masterclass successfully.
