DBT for Adolescent & Family

DBT Standard Program for Adolescents & Families program is designed to help adolescents and their families who have experienced difficulties regulating emotions and behaviors. Adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems often have conflicts with their family members due to their problematic behaviors, such as impulsive and avoiding behaviors. They will learn DBT skills to create balanced self-esteem, to build effective interpersonal relationships with their family and friends, and to maintain stable emotional state.  

In the individual DBT for Adolescent Psychotherapy session, it is important to identify the ineffective behavioral patterns in the family, particularly between the parents/guardians and adolescents. Learning DBT behavior skills, such as ‘validation skills’ helps to form positive behavioral patterns within the family.  

As the role of parents and guardians is very important to adolescents/children, separate treatment session for parent/guardians can be offered to change their relationship that has been created with negative verbal/non-verbal behaviors and learn to respond effectively to their adolescent children.  

In DBT Adolescents & Families Skills Group, clients learn five primary DBT skills training modules that help to adopt new behavior skills: Mindfulness skills, Distress Tolerance skills, Emotion Regulation skills, Interpersonal Effectiveness skills, and Walking the Middle Path. 

Mindfulness skills help adolescents lower their negative emotional state while increasing their positive state of mind and be aware of their own emotions, thoughts, and urges. It helps them to recognize their negatively distorted thinking patterns and impulsivity.  

Distress Tolerance skills help adolescents reduce impulsive behaviors and learn to accept reality as it is.  

Emotion regulation skills improve positive emotions while reducing negative emotions of adolescents. 

Interpersonal effectiveness skills help adolescents, and their families build healthy relationships, validating each other using the ‘Walking the Middle Path skill’. 

In DBT Adolescents & Families Skills Group, parents/guardians not only learn about the concept of dialectics and validation, but also behavioral modification theories including reinforcement, shaping, extinction, and contingency. Understanding and applying the theories and skills to adolescents who have difficulty regulating their emotions help the parents/guardians promote effective and consistent parenting skills. Adolescents also learn to reduce interpersonal conflicts within the family through this skills module.