December 12, 2025
8:30am – 12:00pm Pacific Time
11:30am – 3:00pm Eastern Time
Presented Virtually via Zoom Video Communications
Presented by:
Andrea Gold, PhD
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Dialectics represents the worldview of DBT, establishing its framework, principles, strategies and skills. To practice skillful DBT, it is essential for providers and clients alike to cultivate their understanding and application of dialectics. Defining dialectics in a nutshell as “both/and” instead of “either/or” may seem simple and straightforward in many ways. At the same time, applying dialectics to real-life and teaching clients how to think and act dialectically can feel complicated, challenging, and, at times, overwhelming to therapists. This is particularly true when working with individuals with exquisite emotional sensitivity, heightened emotional reactivity, and a history of invalidation, as is typically the case with clients in DBT.
In the “Understanding dialectics in DBT” handout, we discuss tools to enhance the instruction and application of dialectics; specifically, the “Cylinder metaphor” and “Plaid Venn diagram metaphor” illustrate how seemingly contradictory perspectives can coexist, while distinguishing “synthesis” from “compromise”. This workshop is an expansion on an hour long Learn and Earn on metaphors for teaching and practicing dialectics as a skill. This 3-hour workshop offers an in-depth opportunity to explore ways to improve therapists’ teaching of dialectics as a skill, as well as ways to enhance therapists’ own motivation and capabilities to use specific dialectical strategies, and to explicitly attend to the dialectics of the therapy relationship and maintain a therapeutic stance that balances acceptance and change. This workshop will explore ways to use metaphors to teach dialectics as a skill while extending beyond individual to family DBT sessions. Expanding beyond the metaphors presented in the handout as a foundation, we will also link the dialectical principles illustrated in the “Cylinder metaphor” to collaborative problem-solving skills that can be taught and practiced in family sessions, e.g., with adolescents and their caregivers, or adults and their partners. In addition, this workshop is designed to enhance therapists’ application of dialectics in session, by elucidating and illustrating with examples ways for therapists to practice the specific dialectical strategies used throughout DBT (i.e., metaphors, entering the paradox, devil’s advocate, extending, activating wise mind, making lemonade out of lemons, allowing natural change, and dialectical assessment).
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the conclusion of this event, participants will be able to:
- Describe at least one metaphor to teach dialectical principles and provide an example of applying the metaphor to a real life situation
- Describe the three ways in which DBT therapists apply a dialectical framework throughout treatment
- Describe the three therapist stances that DBT therapists use to explicitly attend to the dialectics of the therapy relationship
- Identify eight specific dialectic strategies to help therapists and clients
- Describe at least one example of each of the eight dialectical strategies
- Recognize the benefits of applying dialectical strategies in DBT practice, supervision, and consultation
Instructor | Andrea Gold, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Brown University Alpert Warren School of Medicine and the Pediatric Anxiety Research Center (PARC) at Bradley Hospital. She is the Team Lead of the DBT-X Track in PARC’s Intensive Program for OCD & Related Disorders. Andrea is passionate about dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and exposure and response prevention (ERP), while living the ‘exposure lifestyle’ and ‘DBT lifestyle’ as all-in life philosophies. At PARC, she is developing an adaptation of DBT targeting exposure (DBT-X) for the subpopulation of adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety disorders co-occurring with emotion dysregulation, suicidal and self-injurious behaviors, and BPD. She is also on the Board of Directors for the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEABPD) and the DBT Bulletin.
PRICING:
|
Individual Registration Fee $159.00 |
Group Registration Fee for 3 or more $135.00/person |
Students are eligible for 15% off individual registration fee* |
*email training@pdbti.org for student discount code
CONTINUING EDUCATION HOURS
Participants who complete the training will earn 3 CE hours.
Portland DBT Institute has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6326.
Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Portland DBT Institute is solely is responsible for all aspects of the program.
Private Training Request
Portland DBT Institute training is available to schedule as a private training for your group. PDBTI’s training team travels locally, nationally, and internationally, to provide evidence based, adherent DBT training. Please fill out our Training Request Form and a training coordinator will contact you to see how we can work together to exceed your organization’s training goals.
CANCELLATIONS AND REFUNDS
A $60.00 handling fee will be deducted upon cancellation. Refund requests by fax or email must be received two weeks before the start date. In addition, the fees are non-transferrable.
PDBTI reserves the right to cancel any program due to under-enrollment, or any course due to work stoppages, instructor illness or inclement weather. If a course is cancelled, PDBTI is responsible for refunding only the course fee.
