When Therapy Blows Up: Treating Therapy Interfering Behavior Across Modes in DBT© [September 2025]

Course Information:

When Therapy Blows Up: Treating Therapy Interfering Behavior Across Modes in DBT© is for individuals who have been practicing DBT Individual Psychotherapy and/or DBT Skills Training in the context of a comprehensive program. This training is designed to strengthen skills in keeping DBT adherent and treating the inevitable obstacles that occur in DBT individual psychotherapy, DBT Skills Training Group, DBT coaching, DBT family interventions and in our own consultation team.

 As we address each mode, therapists will be invited to discuss issues in the mode that make treatment difficult for the therapist and/or increase client dissatisfaction or drop out. In addition, DBT principles, strategies and interventions will be practiced for each mode.

 This is a highly experiential training with myriad learning opportunities. All participants will be expected to demonstrate and receive feedback on DBT principles and strategies. There will be role plays and real plays to practice the interventions for each mode.

 This training is designed for anyone with experience with individual psychotherapy in DBT and/or skills training. It will assume a strong baseline knowledge of the structure and components of treatment. Trainers will not take time to orient to basic content of DBT.

Course Objectives:

Following this training, participants will be able to:

1. Lead Mindfulness practices;

2. Explain the rationale for four sessions of pre-treatment;

3. Describe the tasks when a client has life threatening behavior in pre-treatment ;

4. Give the rationale for when clients may begin skills training group;

5. List the steps in the in-session dysfunctional behavior protocol;

6. Conduct effective homework review in skills training group;

7. Explain the protocol when a client has life threatening behavior during STG;

8. Increase use of commitment strategies during skills training group;

9. Discuss suicide risk assessment during a telephone consultation;

10. List ways to increase use of telephone consultation;

11. Describe effective ways to intervene with families during a suicide crisis;

12. Explain how to balance consultation to the client with environmental intervention when dealing with families both in session and on calls;

13. Create practices to move to towards therapy for the therapist;

14. Conduct a consultation team assess;

15. Create new targets for their consultation team.

Course Prerequisites:

This course is designed for clinicians who have been trained and are actively practicing DBT.  Attention will be paid to the modes of treatment offered in Standard, Comprehensive DBT therefore practicing individual psychotherapists, skills trainers, family therapists and case managers will benefit from the course.  This course will not teach the basics of DBT. 

Continuing Education:

This course is 12 hours. 100% participation is required to receive any credit. No partial credit will be given for any reason.  In order to document participation in this live online course, each participant will be provided their own invitation to attend each session.  At the conclusion of the course, each participant will be required to complete an Attestation that they attended 100% of each training session. 

Addiction Professionals

National Association of Addiction Professionals (NAADAC) approved education provider, #289850.

Social Workers

Application in process.

Counselors

Application in process.

Psychologists

Treatment Implementation Collaborative, LLC (TIC) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. TIC maintains responsibility for this program and its content. APA credit will be provided upon completion of the course. 100% participation is required in order to receive any credit. No partial credit will be given. 12 APA hours.

Course Instructor:

Dr. Shari Manning is the Chief Executive Officer and one of the three founders of the Treatment Implementation Collaborative, LLC. She is also the founder of the South Carolina Center for Dialectical Behavior Therapy (now the SC Center for DBT, LLC), a private practice that offers standard outpatient and intensive DBT treatment for adults and adolescents. Dr. Manning has implemented DBT in outpatient community mental health, partial hospitalization programs, intensive outpatient programs and inpatient settings. She has supervised therapists at the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics at the University of Washington and the University of South Carolina as well as training and supervising therapists and programs at the SC Department of Mental Health and SC Department of Corrections. Dr. Manning consults extensively to state and private mental health programs, domestically and internationally, at all levels of client care, including forensic and criminal justice settings. Her research includes investigations of the efficacy of DBT with incarcerated women with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and with adult women with co-morbid BPD and eating disorders. Dr. Manning has written several published chapters and articles on DBT and its implementation. Her book for family members, Loving Someone with Borderline Personality Disorder: How to Keep Out-of-Control Emotions from Destroying Your Relationship was published in 2011 by Guilford Press.

Dr. Manning is a DBT Linehan Board of Certification-Board Certified Clinician and has been leading DBT consultation teams since 1993. She is currently working with consultation teams around the world to strengthen their team process.

For a complete description of this training, please view the Printable Course Brochure