Trauma Training
Intro to DBT:Â Skills Training for the Attuned Trauma Therapist
Trainer: Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, RSW
Live Training: June 5th | 10:00 AM Central Time | Available for synchronous, live learning
On-Demand: Available one week after the live event
Your clients don’t need another protocol. They need a therapist who can stay attuned when emotions spike and the room gets hard. Dialectical Behavior Therapy offers powerful, evidence-based tools for working with high‑risk, emotionally dysregulated, and trauma‑impacted clients, but most DBT trainings are rigid, manualized, and hard to translate into real‑world clinical work.
In this live DBT training for trauma therapists, bestselling author and DBT expert Sheri Van Dijk will walk you through a practical, trauma‑informed introduction to DBT that centers on nervous‑system awareness, relational safety, and skills you can use immediately. You’ll learn how to adapt DBT’s four core modules - Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness - for clients with complex trauma, attachment injuries, suicidality, self‑harm, and chronic crisis, without needing a full DBT program.
Get grounded in DBT, stay grounded with your clients, and leave with a clear, compassionate framework you can bring into your very next session.
Practical Interventions You’ll Learn
- Conduct a DBT behavioral chain analysis to pinpoint exactly what drives impulsivity, self-harm, avoidance, and emotional blowups, and intervene precisely instead of guessing.
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Turn chain analysis into a solution-focused treatment plan so every session has clear targets, skill insertion points, and measurable behavior change.
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Use the 6 levels of validation strategically to de-escalate high-intensity emotions without reinforcing stuckness, avoidance, or dysfunctional behaviors.
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Use irreverent and dialectical communication strategies to break rigid thinking, interrupt avoidance, and shift stuck therapeutic dynamics.
- Apply dialectical strategies to balance acceptance and change so clients feel deeply understood and actually move forward.
- Teach and integrate DBT core skill sets (mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness) to stabilize clients and reduce crisis-driven therapy.
What You’ll Learn in This Trauma‑Informed DBT Training
DBT was developed for some of the most complex, high‑risk clients we see in practice. But most clinicians only receive a partial introduction through graduate school, supervision, or scattered handouts. This intro to DBT course is designed to bridge that gap for working trauma therapists.
In this intensive, you’ll:
- Clarify when and why to use DBT with trauma‑impacted clients, including those with BPD traits, chronic suicidality, self‑injury, and relational chaos.
- Learn the core theory and structure of DBT - what it is, what it isn’t, and how it fits alongside other trauma therapies you already use.
- Walk through the four DBT skills modules with a clinical lens:
- Mindfulness skills that emphasize present‑moment awareness, self‑compassion, and nervous‑system stabilization.
- Distress Tolerance skills for “getting through this moment” without making it worse.
- Emotion Regulation skills to reduce vulnerability, increase positive emotions, and build mastery.
- Interpersonal Effectiveness skills for boundaries, requests, and repairing relationships.
- Explore how to adapt DBT for trauma work, including pacing, resourcing, and safety planning with highly activated nervous systems.
See how Sheri introduces skills, troubleshoots resistance, and stays grounded with clients in live examples and case material.
Leave with a clear roadmap for bringing DBT skills into individual trauma therapy, groups, and agency or community settings.
You’ll gain a solid foundation in DBT as a trauma therapist training, with enough structure to feel confident and enough flexibility to remain fully attuned to each client’s history, culture, and nervous system.
Who is this course for?Â
This course is designed for mental health clinicians who:
- Are new to DBT or self‑taught, and want a grounded, clinician‑friendly introduction instead of a dense, manual‑heavy training.
- Work with high‑risk, emotionally dysregulated, or trauma‑impacted clients (including BPD, C‑PTSD, chronic suicidality, and self‑harm).
- Want to integrate DBT skills into trauma therapy, not run a full DBT program, with attention to safety, pacing, and attachment.
- Are tired of feeling helpless or overwhelmed in sessions when emotions escalate, threats of self‑harm emerge, or clients feel “stuck in crisis mode.”
- Value nervous‑system‑informed, shame‑sensitive, culturally aware approaches to clinical work.
Whether you practice in private practice, hospitals, community agencies, schools, or group practices, if you’re committed to supporting your clients with practical, skills‑based DBT tools that honor their trauma history and lived experience, this Intro to DBT training will meet you where you are.
About Your Trainer, Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, RSW
Sheri Van Dijk is a psychotherapist, trainer, and bestselling author internationally recognized for her work integrating Dialectical Behavior Therapy with trauma‑informed care. A registered social worker with over two decades of clinical experience, Sheri has worked extensively with clients living with borderline personality disorder, complex trauma, mood disorders, and chronic suicidality in both hospital and outpatient settings.
She is the author of multiple books on DBT, including accessible skills guides for clients and clinicians, and is known for her ability to translate DBT into clear, compassionate, real‑world interventions that therapists can use right away. Sheri’s teaching style is practical, grounded, and deeply respectful of the complexity clinicians hold in the room: high acuity, limited time, and clients whose nervous systems have learned that the world is not safe.
In this DBT training for trauma therapists, Sheri brings her experience as a frontline clinician, author, and trainer to help you feel more equipped, more regulated, and more confident using DBT skills with the clients who need them most.
Additional Information
Schedule - Central
Learning Objectives
Prerequisites
Continuing Education
Course Completion
Cancellation Policy
