1.00 CE Credits Available
Dialectical Behavior Therapy Techniques for Emotional Dysregulation
by Shelley McMain, PhD and Carmen Wiebe
How can you stay centered while supporting clients through periods of extreme reactivity and self-harm? In this video with Drs. Shelley McMain and Carmen Wiebe, learn to apply key tools from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to work with emotional dysregulation.
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Highly reactive clients can test the empathy of even the most compassionate therapists—so how do we support them and also stay grounded ourselves? This video offers answers in the form of compelling strategies taken from Marsha Linehan’s venerable Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Here, DBT experts Drs. Shelley McMain and Carmen Wiebe demonstrate a selection of key interventions from the method, designed to help clients navigate waves of emotional dysregulation. What’s more, they outline the essential DBT mindset that will help you, the therapist, maintain your own equilibrium in the room.

In a series of brief didactic interviews alongside clinical vignettes, Wiebe and McMain reveal how to integrate specific techniques into challenging sessions. Focused here on helping a female client eliminate self-harming behaviors, they present core DBT theories, emphasize the quality of the client-therapist dyad, and promote the use of validation, commitment strategies, problem solving, and distress tolerance skills training.

You’ll get an overview of the three core tenets of DBT—learning theory, Zen philosophy, and dialectics—which together form the therapist’s guiding framework for the model. You’ll understand the significance of an invalidating early environment, and find eight DBT assumptions about clients that can help you stay compassionate. Practical skills are covered as well, including validation techniques, strategies to gain and keep a client’s commitment, and problem-solving methods that enhance deeper treatment. Most important, McMain and Wiebe present effective distress tolerance skills that you can incorporate into your work right away.

While each clinician has a different style, they both convey firm guidance alongside tangible warmth and empathy; their client gains valuable insight and tools that eventually lead to significant improvement. This video is an excellent resource for anyone seeking a DBT primer, tools for handling emotional dysregulation, or simple reassurance that you’re not alone in feeling challenged by this work. Check it out today.

What therapists are saying…

"Psychotherapy Essentials To Go is a truly impressive series of videos. Elevating pragmatics over dogma, it is grounded in the wisdom of front-line psychotherapists who adapt the core principles of empirically supported psychotherapies to flexibly address a myriad of clinical issues. No other series of psychotherapy videos is as skillfully concise and yet thorough. It will quickly become a standard reference for teaching and enhancing clinical competence."

-- Zindel V. Segal, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychology in Mood Disorders, University of Toronto–Scarborough; author of The Mindful Way Through Depression
"In this training video, the nuanced reasons for how DBT skills work and how to approach emotionally dysregulated clients is presented in a simple and straightforward manner with ample "practice" examples in the mock client sessions. Very useful indeed."

-- Margaret Evanow, MS, LPCC, DBT Certified Counselor
"I highly recommend this video for individuals new to DBT and practitioners working with individuals with a BPD diagnosis that need help to comprehend and treat their patients more skillfully. Clinical Training Programmes for a range of mental health professionals would also find this video of value as part of their teaching materials. The presenters provide an engaging mix of didactic material interspersed with demonstration role-plays of aspects of DBT. This well-produced video provides a clear, understandable introduction to key theories, principles and practices of DBT."

-- Dr. Michaela Swales PhD, CPsychol, AFBPsS, Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Reader, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board & North Wales Clinical Psychology Programme, co-author of Changing Behavior in DBT: Problem-Solving in Action
"Definitely a good refresher...Showing both description and demonstration in small steps was wonderful. It makes the material and skills easy to comprehend and implement...The video appeals to more than one learning style and the combination of styles helps insure the skills taught will be integrated into actual therapy sessions...I would definitely recommend the video and will require it as training for any new therapists joining my practice."

-- Valencia Agnew, PhD, DBTC
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When a client enters the room in a palpably agitated state—or experiences chronic emotional dysregulation over time—how do we support their calming response while remaining calm ourselves? In this reassuring training video, DBT experts Drs. Shelley McMain and Carmen Wiebe demonstrate an invaluable array of key interventions from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), uniquely geared toward helping clients surf the waves of emotional reactivity and suicidal ideation. You’ll find much to implement in this hour-long presentation.

Here, McMain and Wiebe are focused on helping Ashley, a young woman with a history of self-harm and interpersonal tensions. In a series of brief didactic interviews alongside clinical vignettes, they illustrate the effective use of validation, commitment strategies, problem solving, and distress tolerance skills training. You’ll discover the three core tenets of DBT: learning theory, Zen philosophy, and dialectics. You’ll also learn about the significance of an invalidating early environment on a client’s current presentation, and find eight DBT assumptions about clients that can help you stay compassionate. Practical skills are covered as well, including validation techniques; commitment strategies such as devil’s advocate, pros and cons, and more; the AVIS-R skills coaching protocol; behavioral and solution analyses; and making collaborative thought records. Finally, McMain and Wiebe present distress tolerance skills that you can start using with your clients today.

While each host has a different style, they both remain firmly in command of the session while also communicating genuine concern and empathy. By the video’s end, Ashley reports in a separate epilogue that she has a deeper understanding of her anxiety and self-harm, feels more in control of her life, and has abstained from cutting herself for three months.

With its rich set of takeaways, this video offers practical tools to support your work with clients in distress. If you’re in search of integral resources on DBT, emotional dysregulation, or distress tolerance skills, be sure to add this to your library.

By watching this video, you will:
  • Analyze the theoretical underpinnings of DBT and its application to emotional dysregulation.
  • List various methods to effectively validate your client’s experience.
  • Compile ways to incorporate commitment strategies, problem-solving tools, and distress tolerance skills into your client work.

Length of video: 1:01:20

English subtitles available

Group ISBN-13 #: 978-1-60124-516-8

Shelley McLain, PhD, a researcher, psychologist and educator, is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Ontario Canada; and head of the Personality Disorder Treatment, Research and Capacity Building for the Clinical Assessment and Triage Service and Women’s Programs at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario Canada. She is also the head of the Borderline Personality Disorder Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Dr. McClain is a Member, DBT Individual and Group Certification, DBT Board of Certification and Accreditation (Seattle, Washington); and was an advisory board member of the International DBT Strategic Planning Research Committee at the University of Washington and Affiliate Board Member at the Linehan Institute, also in Seattle. Dr. McLain has won the coveted Ian Silver Award for Excellence in Psychiatry Continuing Professional and Practice Development, and the Colin Woolf Award for Excellence in Course Coordination in relation to her training in DBT.


Carmen Wiebe, MD, is assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where she is the course coordinator and presenter in the DBT certificate program. She has won the coveted Colin Woolf Award for Excellence in Course Coordination and the Ivan Silver Award for Excellence in Continuing Mental Health Education for her work in the DBT Certificate Program. She won the Joint CPA-COPCE Award for the Most Outstanding Continuing Education Activity in Psychiatry (academic) in Canada for her course, “Using Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Strategies in Your Practice”, presented at the Canadian Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Weibe is also a staff psychiatrist at the Borderline Personality Disorder Clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, also in Toronto where she coordinates Dialectical Behavior Therapy education for the postgraduate program.


Shelley McMain, PhD and Carmen Wiebe was compensated for his/her/their contribution. None of his/her/their books or additional offerings are required for any of the Psychotherapy.net content. Should such materials be references, it is as an additional resource.

Psychotherapy.net defines ineligible companies as those whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. There is no minimum financial threshold; individuals must disclose all financial relationships, regardless of the amount, with ineligible companies. We ask that all contributors disclose any and all financial relationships they have with any ineligible companies whether the individual views them as relevant to the education or not.

Additionally, there is no commercial support for this activity. None of the planners or any employee at Psychotherapy.net who has worked on this educational activity has relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose with ineligible companies.

CE credits: 1

Learning Objectives:

  • Discuss the theoretical underpinnings of DBT
  • List various methods to effectively validate your client's experience
  • Plan ways to incorporate commitment strategies in your clinical work

Bibliography available upon request

This course is offered for ASWB ACE credit for social workers. See complete list of CE approvals here

© 2013

Course Reviewed January 2024

This Disclosure Statement has been designed to meet accreditation standards; Psychotherapy.net does its best to mitigate potential conflicts of interest and eliminate bias in all areas of content. Experts are compensated for their contributions to our training videos; while some of them have published works, the purchase of additional materials are not required for any Psychotherapy.net training. Each experts’ specific disclosures can be found in their biography.

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