DBT’s Greatest Hits: 10 Essential Skills Every Therapist Should Know introduces clinicians to ten practical teaching units drawn from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). Designed for mental health professionals across therapeutic orientations, this three-hour training explores how to select, explain, and introduce DBT skills for managing emotional distress, responding to ineffective urges, reducing rigid thinking, improving interpersonal effectiveness, and preparing for difficult situations. No prior DBT experience is required. Participants will explore Wise Mind and Dialectical Thinking, Mindfulness of Current Thoughts and Emotions, Check the Facts, Opposite Action, Radical Acceptance, STOP, TIP, Pros and Cons, DEAR MAN, and Cope Ahead.

Using clinical examples, demonstrations, and guided exercises, participants will examine how different skills address different treatment needs. Particular attention is given to distinguishing between observing an experience, evaluating an interpretation, changing a behavioral response, and accepting a reality that cannot presently be changed. This training emphasizes practical clinical application, appropriate skill selection, and common implementation mistakes. It introduces selected DBT procedures and does not constitute comprehensive DBT training.

Upon completion of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Differentiate the primary clinical functions of selected DBT mindfulness, distress-tolerance, emotion-regulation, acceptance and interpersonal-effectiveness skills, and identify an appropriate skill for a presented clinical situation.
• Describe the essential procedures and clinical decision rules for Wise Mind/Dialectical Thinking, Check the Facts, Opposite Action and Radical Acceptance, including at least one common misapplication of each.
• Apply selected DBT skills to fictional clinical situations by identifying the treatment target, selecting an appropriate intervention and explaining relevant safety or feasibility considerations.
• Construct a brief Cope Ahead plan specifying an anticipated situation, the intended skillful response, a rehearsal procedure and a method for evaluating implementation.