[growlycat]

So I agreed to take my ts dbt skills class in sept. Only an hour long once a week for ten weeks. I am learning that this isn't the same as a full dbt course? What is the difference? Is one a day treatment program or not always? Trying to predict how much work this might be

[zoiecat]

I am on a waiting list for an intensive program which will meet one day a week for an hour and forty-five minutes for 32 weeks. There is another one that only meets 10 or 16 weeks I believe.

[unaluna]

32 weeks sounds like you go thru it twice. They usually want you to go thru it more than once. There are 4 modules, about 4 weeks each, so 16 weeks is once. And yeah i think our classes were like 2 hours. More than 1, anyway, cuz i remember we took a break. The only module name i remember is mindfulness, cuz i thought that was stupid. In my defense, this was ten years ago and mindfulness wasnt the buzzword it is now!

[byondmycntrl]

I remember term radical acceptance...I'd really like to get back to dbt.

[growlycat]

I think I'm signed up for "dbt lite" which is fine because it is right after work and a trek across town. How much interaction with the other group members should I expect to endure?

[atisketatasket]

The one I was oh-so-briefly in was 36 weeks, 8 weeks per module with mindfulness refreshers in between. And that was once through.

Maybe I could have endured dbt lite better.

[growlycat]

36 weeks sounds harrowing. When I started reading online about diary cards I got nervous about the time commitment needed. How does anyone do 36 weeks? You have more stamina than I do.

[atisketatasket]

Originally Posted by growlycat

36 weeks sounds harrowing. When I started reading online about diary cards I got nervous about the time commitment needed. How does anyone do 36 weeks? You have more stamina than I do.

Well, no--I quit two weeks in.

[unaluna]

Originally Posted by growlycat

I think I'm signed up for "dbt lite" which is fine because it is right after work and a trek across town. How much interaction with the other group members should I expect to endure?

Its not like group therapy. People are not really expected to share their stories. But i couldnt see how to figure out how to apply dbt vagueness to my specific situation, so you know you might mention stuff. But its enough that youre in the room with them!

[FairyLeaf]

I did DBT lite. It was once a week for 2 and half hours for 6 months.

I am currently in a grads groups for DBT that I go to when I am able to and that is 2 hours long. It has been really helpful.

[Moreta]

I tried to do a DBT class a couple years ago and got so mad I quit. I just couldn't take the people's personalities in the class. I'm doing DBT now just with my therapist, it's pretty cool to not have to be with a bunch of people. I was doing a diary card for a while. they're not that hard, I just gave up on them cause I kept forgetting to do it. lol. I forget a lot of things.

I think "full" DBT entails a weekly group therapy/skills class, a weekly private appointment with a T, and phone support (wherein your T coaches you to use skills) whenever you need it.

[rainbow8]

I went through DBT twice. We used a modified version of Marsha Linehan's book but we covered the four modules. It was 2 hours a week and you could stop any time but I think I went for a year! I liked the leader very much.

We weren't supposed to interact much with the others in the group. It was more like a lecture but we had to report our homework and read our diary cards each week. It was beneficial but I forgot a lot except for basics of mindfulness and distress tolerance.

We didn't need to see a special DBT T, but needed to be in therapy while we were taking the course.

My T encourages mindfulness and it's good for me. I don't understand why so many dislike it.

Good luck, Growly. There are a lot of useful concepts in DBT. I think DBT light can be helpful because there is a lot of repetition in the regular course.

[unaluna]

Distress tolerance! Gosh wonder why my mind went blank about that! LOL

Thanks, google!

1. core mindfulness,
2. distress tolerance,
3. emotion regulation, and
4. interpersonal effectiveness.

Frankly, these all ran together in my mind at the time. Now i can see how they are actually separate aspects.

[HALLIEBETH87]

I joined our DBT group the second week is started and it took us two years to finish the whole program!

[zoiecat]

I am currently and a DBT class that meets once a week for 2 hours for six months although my therapist wants me to go through it twice which would mean it would be a full year. I actually like it so far I've been going about four weeks now some of the skills are very helpful and I really like the teacher. We don't have to deal too much with listening to the others and she rarely checks are homework cards. My therapist is already taught me many of the skills so the class just reinforces what he is gone over.

I've never taken a DBT class but when I first heard of it, I was interested and studied it in depth. Most of what I discovered was that I was already using those approaches and skills, almost on a daily basis, naturally. Never very consciously force-learned. The one thing that definitely stood out at me was that it is very heavily habit-based. Probably the natural skills work for me because I use them habitually, automatically, repetitively. Perhaps this is why the classes are relatively long and involve repetitions, to help adopt those things and ingrain them as habitual reactions? We need to keep doing and repeating things to stick in our mentality and behavioral responses.