Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

  • DBTA adolescent girl staring into the distance

    Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for Adolescents: Evidence, Applications, and Emerging Considerations

    Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A) is a developmentally adapted, evidence-based intervention for young people experiencing emotion dysregulation, self-harm, and suicidal ideation. In recent years, a growing body of evidence such as randomised trials and meta-analyses have suggested DBT-A’s effectiveness across outpatient, inpatient, and community settings (Mehlum et al., 2014; McCauley et al., 2018; Kothgassner et al., 2021; Syversen et al., 2024).

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  • Jake Camp

    Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for Adolescents (DBT-A)

    EARLY BIRD! This interactive workshop, led by Dr. Jake Camp, Senior Clinical Psychologist, DBT Therapist, and Clinical Academic Fellow, will provide an overview of the DBT-A model, including its theoretical foundations, core principles, and the structure and modes of delivery. Attendees will learn how DBT-A addresses the developmental needs of adolescents, and how parents/carers are engaged as partners in the intervention.

    Event type
    Workshop
    Location
    Online
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  • Professor Michael Kaess

    Michael Kaess is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Bern as well as the Director of the University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Bern in Switzerland. Professor Kaess is a Joint Editor of CAMH. 

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  • More research is needed into effective interventions for sensory symptoms

    Professor Alison Lane at the University of Newcastle, Australia, has compiled a practitioner review for the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry on how to effectively manage functional difficulties associated with sensory symptoms in children and adolescents.

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  • DBT-A can enhance emotion regulation in ethnic minority youth

    Ethnic minority youth often experience environmental and culturally relevant stressors, putting them at risk of developing self-regulation difficulties and engaging in self-harm.

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  • Suicide and Self-Harm Special Edition

    The National Confidential Enquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health Annual Report (2018)  highlighted that suicide in the under 20’s is rising generally and that the number of suicides rises towards late teens.

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  • DBT-A reduces self-harming behaviours by improving feelings of hopelessness

    Professor Lars Mehlum and colleagues have completed a prospective 3-year follow-up study, which showed that DBT-A has enduring effects in terms of reducing self-harm frequency in adolescents compared to EUC.

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  • DBT is effective for youth with high levels of emotion dysregulation

    In 2019, Molly Adrian and colleagues examined the predictors and moderators of treatment outcomes for suicidal adolescents who participated in a randomized controlled trial evaluating Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) versus Individual/Group Supportive Therapy (IGST).

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  • Resilience Edition

    In this edition we bring together a number of papers that broadly discuss the theme of resilience and developing resilience through therapy.

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  • Dialectical behaviour therapy for adolescents: a comparison of 16-week and 24-week programmes delivered in a public community setting

    Clinicians in CAMHS across Ireland have sought training in DBT-A to treat the increasing number of adolescents presenting to their services with self-harm and/or suicidal behaviour. With a growing national interest in DBT provision in community services, the National DBT Project Ireland was established in 2013 to coordinate training and implementation of DBT (in both adult and child/adolescent services) in the Irish public health service.

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