How to become a DBT therapist.

If you are a mental health professional.

It may be best to think in terms of accreditation, and in terms of APT Accreditation, you might consider levels 1 to 3 as being where you are acquainting yourself with Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). At levels four and five you might reasonably describe yourself as ‘a DBT therapist‘, assuming that you have a relevant underpinning professional qualifications such as psychology, psychiatry, mental health nursing, occupational therapy, or social work. In any event, we believe that total transparency is always best, in this case to be clear as to the training and experience you have acquired.

If your occupational background is other than mental health.

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.