Welcome to the DBT Graduate Group!

If you found this page that means you have exclusively been invited Ebright's DBT Graduate Group. Welcome! This page was built to answer a few questions for you about this group and how it works. If ever you have a question, feel free to reach out. We hope you find this group helpful to building lives worth living and maintaining the skills!

What is a DBT Graduate Group
Unlike a DBT Skills Group, this group is loosely modeled after a DBT Consultation Team for therapists. We begin with mindfulness, check-in with each other, set an agenda for the meeting that best supports your needs, and finish with committing to working on something before the next group. We also fully expect to support each other outside of group time.

Our Goal
I don't need to tell you how difficult life can be or how easy it is to find yourself drifting away from skills use. Life is really hard! And doing it without support is nearly impossible. The primary function of this support group is to:
  1. Assist you towards your Life Worth Living goals,
  2. Keep you committed to the skills, and
  3. Establish a community of like-minded people to help ensure balance in your life and keep you on track long term.

Getting Started
If it's your first time in group, welcome! Before you begin, here are a few housekeeping tasks and things to do beforehand.
  • Update your information in our system!! This can be done through your Patient Portal Account. If you can't remember your user name, please reach out and ask. Make especially sure your email, address and insurance information is up to date. 
  • Find your DBT skills book and bring it!
  • Mentally prepare yourself to begin this group with an open mind,  willingness to participate, and commitment to see it through.
  • Come to group on time (or a few minutes early) to settle in.

Member Expectations
A Graduate group is more process-oriented which means the group itself plays more of a role setting the agenda of what we will be doing in group. This is different than a DBT skills group which was goal-oriented and was more classroom style.  It might take a couple sessions to get used to it but there's much to benefit from this style group. 

To help with the transition, here are a few bullet points to keep in mind. These points were offered from Marsha herself to her new clinicians on a Consultation Team (which this is loosely built off of):
  • Listen to and validate members who wish to share or process their experiences.
  • Consult with members who want consultation.
    • Get agreement on the problem presented and get it defined behaviorally (is the member looking for problem solving, validation, cheer leading, praise, sympathy?)
  • Participate, remembering that every member has something to say, i.e., staying silent throughout an entire meeting is not participating.
  • Support and address team members who have an issue with the group itself.
  • Highlight “elephants-in-the-room” and topic avoidance when they arise.

Group Structure
(Check in/ Check Out)

Member Roles
To keep the group intact, we have found it helpful to carve out certain roles that we all participate in (usually we rotate every few sessions). It helps keep us actively involved and also provides a little more structure so we keep the group on track with the groups' goals. The roles currently are as follows:

Meeting leader
  1. Develops agenda with team members
  2. Determines order of agenda items
  3. Manages time

 Observer -  observes and rings the bell lightly when:
  1. A judgmental/non-compassionate comment is made
  2. Someone is treated as fragile 
  3. Defensiveness arises, forgetting that we are all fallible
  4. Non-mindfulness - members doing two things at one time
  5. A group guideline is violated
  6. A dialectic is unresolved

Note taker 
  1. Takes notes during the meeting of agenda items discussed
  2. Notes any topics unaddressed due to time for follow-up at next meeting
  3. Writes down any homework committed too for follow up

Skills Refresher 
  1. Presents one of the DBT skills to serve as a refresher of that skill.
  2. Present by either teaching the skill, role playing, highlighting an effective moment in their lives, etc.

Mindfulness 
  1. Prepares a brief mindfulness exercise to begin group.
  2. Ties the exercise into one's life
  3. Facilities any observations afterward and highlights any mindfulness skills that are used and mentioned.

​Team Leader (this role does not rotate)
  • This role is provided by the DBT therapist in the room
  • Champions to keep the group committed
  • Provides encouragement when needed
  • Facilitates the group to keep each member within their roles
  • Intervenes when the group gets stuck with an issue
  • Offers expert consultation/teaching only when needed
  • Monitors overall commitment to the group and recruits other member when applicable.

If ever you have any questions, feel free to reach out ! Enjoy this group!