Adolescent DBT Programme

Adolescent DBT Programme

DBT UK offers a structured Dialectical Behaviour Therapy programme for adolescents who experience emotional dysregulation, impulsive or risky behaviours, self-harm or urges to self-harm, relationship difficulties, anxiety, low mood, or emotional overwhelm.

DBT is a skills-based therapy that helps young people understand and manage their emotions more effectively. Rather than responding to overwhelming emotions through harmful or unhelpful behaviours, DBT teaches practical strategies that support healthier coping, improved relationships, and greater emotional stability.

The adolescent programme combines weekly DBT skills group sessions with optional individual therapy and phone coaching. The group is psychoeducational rather than process-based, meaning the focus is on learning and practising concrete skills that can be applied in everyday life.

Programme Overview

The adolescent DBT skills group runs for 32 weeks and is delivered online.

Skills Group: Weekly online DBT skills training for adolescents
Day/Time: Tuesdays, 5:00–6:00pm
Format: Online
Duration: 32 weeks

The skills group is the core component of the programme. Adolescents learn and practise DBT skills alongside others their age, which can help them feel understood and validated while developing practical tools for managing everyday difficulties.

Individual Therapy

Individual therapy is recommended alongside the DBT skills group.

These sessions provide space for young people to apply DBT skills to their own experiences, goals, relationships, and patterns of behaviour. Individual therapy can help adolescents explore difficulties in more depth and strengthen their ability to use DBT skills outside of the group.

Phone Coaching

Clients accessing the full DBT programme (i.e. group and individual therapy) also have access to seven-day-a-week phone coaching.

Phone coaching is designed to help young people use DBT skills in real time, during moments of distress or difficulty. It is not a crisis service, but a way of supporting clients to practise skills when they need them most.

The Five DBT Skills Modules

The adolescent programme covers five core DBT skills modules. Each module builds on the last, helping young people develop skills to manage overwhelming emotions, cope with distress safely, improve relationships, reduce impulsive behaviours, and build confidence and resilience.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness skills help young people focus on the present moment and become more aware of their thoughts, emotions, and surroundings.

These skills support adolescents to slow down, notice what is happening internally and externally, and respond more thoughtfully rather than reacting impulsively.

Mindfulness forms the foundation for the other DBT modules.

Distress Tolerance

Distress Tolerance skills help adolescents cope with intense emotions and difficult situations without making things worse.

Young people learn practical strategies for getting through moments of crisis or emotional overwhelm, including calming the body, managing harmful urges, and making choices that are more aligned with their longer-term goals.

Emotion Regulation

Emotion Regulation skills help young people better understand their emotions and learn how to manage them more effectively.

This includes learning to identify and label emotions, reduce emotional vulnerability, increase positive emotional experiences, and respond to difficult emotions in ways that feel more effective.

Interpersonal Effectiveness

Interpersonal Effectiveness skills help adolescents navigate relationships more confidently.

Young people learn how to communicate their needs, set boundaries, manage conflict, ask for support, and maintain relationships while also building self-respect.

Walking the Middle Path

Walking the Middle Path is a module designed specifically for adolescents and families.

It teaches young people and their parents or carers how to balance different perspectives, reduce conflict, and develop more flexible thinking. Skills focus on validation, dialectical thinking, compromise, negotiation, and improving communication within families and relationships.

Who May Beneflt

Adolescents may benefit from DBT if they struggle with:

• intense or rapidly changing emotions  impulsive or risky behaviours
• self-harm or urges to self-harm  suicidal thoughts or behaviours  conflict in relationships
• anxiety, low mood, or emotional overwhelm  difficulty coping with stress or distress
• DBT was originally developed to support people with high levels of emotional dysregulation and is now used to help with a range of emotional and behavioural difficulties.