Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Adolescents: Learning to Love Ambivalence
Do you both love and hate your work with young people? Are you both intrigued and terrified when in the work? Does it both invigorate and exhaust you? Working with high-intensity teens and young adults requires a love of ambivalence and an ability to deal with uncertainty. Learn about utilizing Dialectical Behavior Therapy with adolescents and increase our capacity to tolerate their distress as well as ours.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy has been around for almost thirty years. It continues to be the treatment of choice for addressing many challenging and at times life-threatening issues. DBT helps us to understand that what can be seen as “problem behaviors” are really people’s best attempts to cope with the tools at their disposal. DBT has also helped to bring about the understanding that personality disorders arise when chronic invalidation exists and basic needs are not met.
DBT's combination of structured individual treatment, skills development, and consultation of all members of the team offers a comprehensive way to support both the client and the provider. In addition to discussing the tenets of DBT, participants will explore unique treatment considerations when working with young people, their attendant systems and their inherent ambivalence about treatment.
6 CEs are available.