Including family members and loved ones in DBT sessions can be challenging. Family members, including parents, partners, siblings etc, both amplify emotion dysregulation, and with the right tools can help reduce intense emotions. This can be difficult to address even among family members without BPD or other significant problems with emotion regulation, and particularly difficult when individuals struggle with pervasive emotion dysregulation. Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) has been shown in dozens of studies to be effective in treating the many problems associated with emotion dysregulation.  DBT has been adapted for use with couples, parents, and families with multiple studies demonstrating successful outcomes. This learn and earn will present typical family targets that warrant collateral/family sessions, define specific skills needed to engage in family sessions, and demonstrate how to structure family sessions to maximize success.  

Learning Objectives  
By the conclusion of this event, participants will be able to:

1. Identify family/relational targets that warrant collateral sessions  
2. Assess family system’s skill level to determine readiness for sessions 
3. Provide rationale for skills to use during sessions to maximize session effectiveness 
4. Describe the model of family/relational dysregulation 
5. Structure session and target in session emotion dysregulation 

Instructor | Dr Tali Wigod is the founder and clinical director of Middle Path Psychology, a private practice in New Jersey providing CBT and DBT for children, adolescents, adults, and families. She previously served as research director and staff psychologist at Cognitive & Behavioral Consultants, co-leading DBT foundational and school-based DBT trainings. Tali is a DBT-LBC certified clinician and is committed to training others in DBT. 

Dr. Wigod will be presenting a 3-hour follow up training on this topic!

More info on 3 hour training

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Increasing evidence suggests that exposure to potentially morally injurious events (PMIE’s) impacts individuals from a variety of communities, like warzone Veterans, healthcare workers, and survivors of racial trauma (Borges et al., 2021; Currier et al., 2019; Fulton et al., 2023). PMIEs often prompt painful moral emotions (e.g., guilt, shame, contempt, anger, disgust), cognitions (e.g., self or other blaming thoughts), and urges (e.g., to hide, self-medicate, suicidal behavior). Moral injury results when attempts to control moral pain significantly interfere with an individual’s personal, social, and spiritual functioning. Through this lunch and earn an introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Moral Injury (ACT-MI; Borges et al., 2022; Farnsworth et al., 2017) will be provided. ACT-MI is an innovative group/individual intervention developed through iterative participant feedback. Results from a randomized controlled pilot trial (N = 74 participants) will be presented, including qualitative interview data. Examples of participant feedback about ACT-MI include, “now I can say I did this [of the MIE], I lived through it, and now it’s time to get on with what I care about. I haven’t had that feeling…I don’t believe ever” and “I can live life again. I can go outside. I can spend time with my kids. I can be a better mom. I thank God every day that I got to be a part of this.” The approach to moral injury case conceptualization, processes targeted in treatment, and structure of ACT-MI will be introduced.  

Learning Objectives  
By the conclusion of this event, participants will be able to:

1. Describe how to conceptualize moral injury from a functional contextual perspective 
2. Identify the processes targeted in ACT-MI treatment
3. Explain the typical ACT-MI treatment structure

Instructor | Lauren M. Borges, Ph.D. is a clinical research psychologist at the Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) for suicide prevention. She holds an academic appointment of Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine Anschutz Medical Campus. She is a consultant for VA’s Suicide Risk Management Consultation Program. She is federally funded to investigate different applications of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for moral injury and for suicidal behavior among Veterans and health care providers.

Dr. Borges will be presenting a one-day follow up training on this topic!

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Behavior therapy is a foundational principle of DBT. It is central to both change and (many) acceptance strategies. This talk will provide a brief overview of the process of behavior change in DBT. We will also discuss contingency management strategies, stimulus control strategies, exposure and response prevention, and skills training/generalization as the apply across the modes of DBT.

Learning Objectives  
By the conclusion of this event, participants will be able to:

1. Define a “behavior”
2. Describe the process of behavior change in the context of DBT
3. Apply one behavioral strategy to client

Instructor | Dr. Aditi Vijay is an Assistant Professor at Kean University where she directs the Interpersonal Context of Emotion Dysregulation lab (or the ICED lab!). The ICED lab focuses on the transactional relationship between the interpersonal/social context and emotion regulation. Her research and clinical interests focus on 1) emotion regulation processes as they relate to chronic suicidality and self-harm, trauma, and rejection sensitivity, 2) process and outcomes of Dialectical Behavior Therapy and 3) equity in clinical care. Current projects include 1) loneliness and emotion regulation in emerging adults, 2) relationship between emotion regulation and trauma, and 3) the role of DBT consultation team processes as predictors of DBT therapist burnout and adherence.

Dr. Vijay has provided extensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and consultation to DBT teams throughout the U.S. She has served on the board of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder and is current president of the board for the International Society for the Improvement and Teaching of DBT. She founded a small private practice specializing in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and trauma treatment in New York City.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in history and psychology from the University of Michigan, her master’s degree in the Teaching of Social Studies from Teachers College, Columbia University, her master’s degree in Risk and Prevention from Harvard University, and doctorate in psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno.

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