Our DBT Skills Group is aimed at helping individuals who are looking to find new strategies and skills to assist them in coping with difficult situations and intense emotions.

DBT skills can assist individuals who are:

• struggling with substance use, eating disordered behaviour, depression, anxiety, interpersonal relationships, emotion management, and/or borderline personality disorder
• experiencing mild to severe problems with mood swings
• having difficulties managing stress
• impulsive and engaging in high risk behaviours
• experiencing suicidal thoughts and/or self-harm behaviours
• able to commit to attending group sessions, participating in a group learning experience, and managing homework

Participants will learn:

• mindfulness skills that will help them focus their minds and increase their awareness in the present moment without judgment
• distress tolerance skills to help endure intense emotions without making the situation worse
• emotion regulation skills to identify, understand, and accept emotions, reduce vulnerabilities that can increase the emotional intensity, and work on problem solving to promote responses as opposed to impulsive reactions
• interpersonal effectiveness skills to assist in attending to relationships by setting and keeping boundaries, solving problems, and being assertive
• how to challenge their thought process and learn a more balanced perspective
• how to reduce vulnerabilities to emotionality and tolerate distressing emotions
• how to improve functioning in everyday life

Our group facilitators:

• are registered professionals that work with clients struggling with a wide variety of concerns
• have extensive experience conducting both individual and group therapy
• have intensive training in DBT
• are supervised by psychologists who have completed advanced training with Marsha Linehan
• want to empower clients towards finding a balance between acceptance and change

Our adult DBT skills group is a 15-week open psycho-educational group. Sessions are continuously running and new participants are able to join when the group is on the mindfulness module. Each weekly session is three hours in length. The cost is $1725 ($115/week).

Our adolescent DBT skills group is a 14-week closed psycho-educational group. Sessions are two hours in length and it is required that at least one parent attend with the adolescent. Cost $3200 per family (one adolescent/parent). If a second parents attends, cost is an additional $1200.

It is important for clients attending the DBT Skills Group to have an individual therapist who is willing to assist them in integrating the skills learned into their everyday lives. Individual therapy through Inspired Minds Wellness Centre is available upon request.

A $250.00 non-refundable deposit is required upon enrollment.

Anyone who has completed a DBT Skills Group knows there is a lot to learn and it can be difficult to implement all the skills into daily life. We recognize that it is beneficial to review the skills when we start to notice that we’re struggling to remember what skills we’re using, and what other skills might be useful in difficult situations. At Inspired Minds we offer a group to help individuals refresh their memory and review the skills in a safe environment with others who are looking to do the same thing.

This group is an open format which means that participants can join the group at any time if it is deemed appropriate and beneficial. Each group consists of:

• 90 minute sessions once a week
• mindfulness exercises lead by participants to expose the group to a variety of mindfulness practices
• a review of one of the four modules with an open discussion of what the skills are, how we use them, where are you getting stuck, what’s working, and what’s not
• time limited check-ins to discuss participant’s experience of working on the skills

We require a five week commitment to ensure that each module is covered; however, participants are welcome to remain in the group after the five weeks as long as it is beneficial to their treatment goals. The cost of this group is $70 per session.