3 Day Intensive: DBT Made Simple

Using Dialectical Behaviour Therapy to Treat Emotion Dysregulation Disorders

Presented by Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, RSW

Monday, July 9, 2018 – Wednesday, July 11, 2018  |  Canada, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Date & Location

In this intensive 3-day workshop, DBT will be de-mystified and you will learn how to use this highly effective therapy to better treat your clients with problems managing emotions. Sheri’s unique workshops emphasize the flexibility of DBT and the benefits of using this therapy to treat disorders other than borderline personality disorder, including bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and concurrent substance use; as well as other difficulties clients experience such as problems with self-esteem, anger, and grief.

Through lecture, experiential exercises, and case consultation you will explore the four modules of DBT: Core Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Distress Tolerance and Interpersonal Effectiveness. Explore tools and strategies to improve the therapeutic relationship and reduce feelings of ineffectiveness and burn-out. Viewing video-tapes of Sheri’s real-life sessions will provide you with a better understanding of the flow of individual sessions as well as how to balance accepting clients where they are with pushing them to make positive changes.

Bringing her years of clinical experience in both private practice and as part of a community hospital; and working with both individuals and DBT-informed groups, Sheri’s practical, inspiring, and highly praised workshop will give you evidence-based skills that can be immediately put into practice.

Rodd Charlottetown Hotel

Who Should Attend

Clinical Professionals: All mental health professionals including, but not limited to Clinical Counsellors, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Social Workers, Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Hospice and Palliative Care Workers, School Counsellors, Youth Workers, Mental Health Workers, Addiction Specialists, Marital & Family Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Vocational Rehabilitation Consultants and all professionals looking to enhance their therapeutic skills.

Agenda

Essentials of DBT

• Mindfulness
• DBT versus CBT
• Traditional DBT model versus adapted models

Biosocial Theory of Emotion Dysregulation

• Understand how emotion dysregulation develops in BPD and other psychiatric illnesses such as:
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Bipolar disorder
• Learn how this theory drives treatment
• Take a nonjudgmental perspective of clients
• Reduce self-blame and shame in clients

Dialectics In Therapy

• Reduce therapist burn-out and power-struggles in treatment through balanced thinking
• Strategies to help clients (and clinicians!) get unstuck in session
• How dialectical dilemmas affect therapy
• Communication strategies:
  • Shaking things up with Irreverence
  • Building rapport with Reciprocal communication
• Emphasis on validation to reduce emotional arousal
• Other dialectical strategies

Reducing Therapist Burn-Out

• Living your own life more mindfully
• The Behavior Tracking Sheet
• Observing limits

The “B” in DBT

• Behavior Theory “brush-up”
• Help clients understand their behaviors from a learning theory perspective
• Contingency management
• Behavioral Analysis

Mindfulness and Neuroplasticity

• DBT skills change the brain
• Using these ideas to motivate your clients
• Changing problem-behaviors
• Teaching mindfulness to a variety of client populations

The Four Skills Modules

1. Core Mindfulness Skills

• An alternative way of thinking about mindfulness
• How mindfulness helps
• Mindfulness as a way of life

2. Emotion Regulation Skills

• Recognize and name emotions
• Understand the function of emotions
• Reduce vulnerability to emotions through lifestyle changes
• Reduce the negatives and increase the positives
• Opposite Action to help down-regulate painful emotions
• Self-validation

3. Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills

• Teach clients to:
  • Form and maintain safe, healthy relationships
  • Set and prioritize goals in interpersonal interactions
  • Improve assertive communication
  • Increase self-respect
  • Have a healthier balance of responsibilities versus enjoyable activities

4. Distress Tolerance Skills

• Help your clients get through crisis situations without making things worse by:
  • Distracting
  • Self-soothing
• Considering the Pro’s and Con’s of problem behaviors
• Managing urges

Learning Objectives

• Learn more about the origins of DBT in order to more fully understand it, including a brief look at DBT versus CBT; the traditional DBT model; and research showing that adaptations of DBT can be very effective.
• Describe the biosocial theory and how this applies to BPD and other disorders of emotion dysregulation.
• Discuss behavior theory and the importance of these concepts to building stronger relationships with clients, and to assist clients in making behavioral changes.
• Demonstrate a variety of mindfulness techniques to make mindfulness more understandable and acceptable to clients.
• Explain the basics of dialectics and some dialectical strategies for the individual session to help get clients unstuck and to build the therapeutic alliance.
• Practice the Behavioral Analysis
• Reduce therapist burn-out through observing limits and use of skills such as nonjudgmental stance and radical acceptance
• Develop a basic understanding of neuroplasticity and how mindfulness relates to this, as well as how you can translate this into skills and use these ideas to help increase client motivation.
• Explain skills in the Emotion Regulation module to give clinicians a basic understanding of how to teach these skills to clients to regulate emotions more effectively.
• Demonstrate the distress tolerance skills that will help clients survive crisis situations and learn how to not act on urges.
• Discuss Interpersonal Effectiveness skills: the importance of increasing and maintaining positive relationships and improving communication.
• Discuss how these skills can be helpful in treating a wide array of psychiatric conditions and problems, including major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, and problems with anger and self-esteem.

Your Presenter

Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, RSW

Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, RSW, is a Social Worker who has been working with clients with severe mental health problems since 2000. With extensive experience in a hospital as well as community setting, Sheri now sees clients in private practice, and provides consultation and training internationally to other clinicians. Sheri has had extensive training in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and mindfulness and has been providing DBT-informed therapy to individuals and groups since 2004.  In 2010 Sheri was the winner of the R.O. Jones award for her research on using DBT with bipolar disorder, presented at the Canadian Psychiatric Association Conference.

Sheri is the author of numerous books that focus on helping readers learn DBT skills and apply them to a variety of mental health problems, including The DBT Workbook for Emotional Relief; the best-selling Don’t Let Your Emotions Run Your Life for Teens; and her newest book, coming in 2025, The DBT Workbook for C-PTSD.

Sheri trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in 2018 and is an EMDRIA-approved Consultant; she is a member of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), and is a consultant for the ISSTD’s EMDR training program.

Testimonials

“Sheri did an amazing job presenting and drawing from her own experiences to help teach these concepts during the training. Your wealth of knowledge and expertise has totally recharged me and given me more tools to use in the DBT skills group that I run with my colleague.”
– Lindsay | Calgary, AB | May 17-18, 2017

“She was very insightful and relatable. Her examples were real and easy to relate back to the material. Overall, the workshop was very enjoyable and I would definitely attend another if offered”
– Calgary, AB | May 17-18, 2017

“Ms. Van Dijk is exceptionally clear, well organized and able to respond to all questions and nuances with clarity. She is committed to her DBT approach and a wonderful teacher. I learned many useful techniques to apply in my psychotherapy with borderline clients.” 
– Emile Kemlo | Victoria, BC | May 15-16, 2017

“Sheri was a detailed presenter + mindful of her audiences needs as learners. She answered our questions, offered her own examples, + made sure light/temperature was comfortable.”
– Danielle Lambrecht | Victoria, BC | May 15-16, 2017

“The workshop was informative, it was interesting to see some of these skills from a DBT perspective. To see them put together and organized into 4 DBT skill sets. It will help to organize and focus what skills to teach/cover with people I work with.”
– Victoria, BC | May 15-16, 2017

“Sheri is very down-to-earth. She presents excellent, concrete examples. She is open to questions and willing to think with people about issues. I greatly appreciated her sharing her knowledge and experience in such a warm and genuine manner.” 
– Angela Bartley | Winnipeg, MB | Dec 1-2, 2016

“Awesome workshop!! Presenter shared her knowledge and case experiences. Loved practical skills and exercises. Workshop was therapeutic, as I was able to reflect on what is happening in my environment at the moment and apply learning to my own experience.”
– Calgary, AB | May 17-18, 2017

“I really appreciated Sheri’s engaging manner + use of clear examples to explain the concepts being taught. I also really appreciated her focusing on using DBT across client issues Vs. just for BPD.”
– Calgary, AB | May 17-18, 2017

“Thoroughly enjoyed and learned a lot. Great mix of theory with application. Sheri is very well spoken, knowledgeable and someone easily relatable as a therapist myself. Too often presenters can be too clinical of narcissistic in nature. Despite being relatable, the info presented is in depth of graduate level instruction. Thanks!”
– Winnipeg, MB | Dec 1-2, 2016

“Very informative 2 days that will be helpful in my work and life! Sheri was clear, concise, and gave great examples to use! Thanks!”
– Winnipeg, MB | Dec 1-2, 2016

“Sheri was an engaging speaker who was able to balance the lecture with humour, multimedia, participation from group, and providing the essentials of the DBT model. I appreciated all of her examples from her practice. The lectures flew by, I would love to attend future workshops with Sheri. The skills are so applicable.”
– Stacey Patterson | Burnaby, BC | Nov 28-29, 2016

 

More information: www.sherivandijk.com

Registration & Fees