Returning to school after the summer holidays can be exciting, but it can also bring about stress, uncertainty, and pressure for many young people. Adolescents face not only academic demands but also social and emotional challenges as they adjust to new classes, teachers, routines, and sometimes even schools. Supporting adolescents with practical skills can make this transition smoother and foster resilience that lasts well beyond the first few weeks of term.

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) offers a range of skills that can be particularly helpful during this period. These skills are designed to support emotional regulation, effective communication, stress management, and building healthier relationships—all of which are vital for navigating school life.

Emotional Regulation: Managing the Ups and Downs

The start of a new school year often stirs up mixed emotions: excitement, nervousness, dread, or even relief. Adolescents may also worry about grades, fitting in, or living up to expectations.

DBT skills can help manage these feelings. For example:

• Opposite Action: If an adolescent feels anxious and wants to avoid school, the skill encourages them to take the opposite action—such as attending and participating—helping to reduce the intensity of fear over time.

• PLEASE Skills: These remind adolescents to take care of their physical health (balanced eating, adequate sleep, exercise, managing illness), which plays a crucial role in emotional stability.

When young people learn to name and understand their emotions, they are less likely to be overwhelmed by them. This emotional literacy is empowering and builds long-term resilience.

Distress Tolerance: Coping with Difficult Moments

Stressful moments at school are inevitable—exams, friendship fallouts, or disappointing grades. Distress Tolerance skills focus on surviving crises without making them worse.

Adolescents may find the following particularly helpful:

• TIP Skills (Temperature, Intense Exercise, Paced Breathing, Progressive Relaxation): Quick strategies to reduce high emotional arousal.

• Self-Soothing: Using the five senses to ground themselves when feeling overwhelmed, such as listening to calming music or holding something soft.

• Radical Acceptance: Learning to acknowledge situations that cannot be changed, such as a timetable or a teacher’s style, which reduces unnecessary suffering.

By practising these skills, young people can navigate setbacks with more balance and less impulsivity.

Interpersonal Effectiveness: Building Healthy Connections

The social side of school can be both rewarding and stressful. Adolescents are developing their sense of identity while managing friendships, peer pressure, and sometimes conflict. Interpersonal Effectiveness skills teach how to communicate needs respectfully while maintaining self-respect and relationships.

• DEAR MAN: A structured way to ask for what they want or say no clearly and assertively.

• GIVE: A reminder to show gentleness, interest, and validation in conversations, helping to strengthen friendships.

• FAST: Encourages fairness, authenticity, and self-respect in relationships.

Equipped with these skills, adolescents are better prepared to handle group dynamics, resist unhelpful pressures, and form more meaningful connections.

Mindfulness: Staying Present in a Busy World

Back-to-school season can feel like a whirlwind of homework, extracurricular activities, and social commitments. Mindfulness offers adolescents a way to slow down and stay grounded.

Simple practices include:

• Observing what is happening in the moment without judgement.

• Participating fully in tasks, such as listening in class without multitasking.

• Focusing on one thing at a time, which can improve concentration and reduce stress.

Mindfulness also helps young people recognise when they are becoming overwhelmed, giving them space to choose a more skilful response rather than reacting impulsively.

Building a Supportive Environment

While adolescents can benefit greatly from learning DBT skills, they thrive best when parents, carers, and teachers also encourage and model healthy coping strategies. Adults can support by:

• Creating space for open conversations about emotions.

• Encouraging problem-solving rather than rescuing immediately.

• Praising effort and resilience, not only outcomes.

• Reminding adolescents that challenges are opportunities for growth.

When the adults in their lives reinforce DBT skills, adolescents are more likely to use them consistently.

Final Thoughts

Back-to-school season is a time of transition, and with it comes a mix of opportunities and challenges. By equipping adolescents with practical DBT skills, we empower them to manage emotions, cope with stress, communicate effectively, and stay present in their daily lives. These skills not only help them navigate school more successfully but also lay the foundation for lifelong wellbeing.

 

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Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

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