Pre-Treatment in Dialectical Behavior Therapy

The Pre-treatment phase of DBT Stage 1 is described as a series of sessions with a goal of keeping the client from dropping out of treatment prematurely (Linehan, 1993). To do this, the therapist must provide orientation to the treatment, its modes, functions, and roles of providers, while also providing information that informs the client's expectations from the treatment. Simultaneously, the DBT therapist assesses history, current behaviors, determines Life Worth Living Goals, defines primary targets, and obtains commitment to the treatment, its agreements and its various modes. Because of research needs, pretreatment was defined as four sessions. Thus, "the first four" (sessions) has become the standard for DBT pretreatment. There are a multitude of tasks to be completed in those four sessions in addition to determining when the client can begin treatment during the process.

This 8-hour FREE virtual training is open to the DBT teams accepted to move forward with comprehensive program development and Linehan Board (LBC) Certification. This training will use PowerPoints, handouts, examples and practices/breakouts to generalize content.

This training is intended for Center of Innovation and Treatment Implementation Collaborative approved DBT Team Members.

6.5 Social Work CEUs

Trainers: Matt Ditty, DSW, LICSW and Andrea Gottlieb, Ph.D., Treatment Implementation Collaborative

Trainer Bios:

Dr. Matthew Ditty has been a social worker and mental health clinician since 2003. He is the founder and clinical director of The Ebright Collaborative, LLO – a free-standing Dialectical Behavior Therapy
(DBT) program in Wilmington, Delaware. He is also a part-time instructor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Social Work program, and a trainer and consultant with The Treatment Implementation Collaborative, LLC. He began his career in the Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and continued it as a psychotherapist in private practice. He has held part-time and consulting positions with the United States Navy, the Positive Psychology Center, Recovery at Penn, and others, performing tasks such as counseling 911 survivors, providing clinical supervision, and enacting treatment protocol for several research studies. Dr. Ditty’s primary expertise and passion is for implementing evidence-based treatments for suicide, non-suicidal self-injury, and post-traumatic stress disorder. He has received Core Clinical Training in DBT by Dr. Shari Manning, he has served as a member of Dr. Marsha Linehan’s DBT Strategic Planning Meeting in Seattle, and he is a published researcher on DBT Implementation. Dr. Ditty is a Certified DBT Clinician by the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification.

Dr. Andrea Gottlieb (she/her) is the Director of DBT Training, the Comprehensive DBT Externship, and The Baltimore DBT Team at The Bethesda Group. She works for Treatment Implementation Collaborative as a Consultant and Trainer and is a Certified DBT Clinician by the DBT Linehan Board of Certification. Andrea earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Denver and completed her predoctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She then joined Sheppard Pratt where she trained staff in inpatient, residential, partial, and outpatient levels of care in using DBT in non-traditional and adherent settings. She has presented on DBT and suicide risk management numerous times, taught many students and staff DBT principles and skills, and published over a dozen articles on depression and self-harm in peer reviewed journals. Dr. Gottlieb is a Certified DBT Clinician by the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification.

Following this training, participants will be able to:

• List the tasks of DBT pre-treatment.
• Explain the principles used in determining when a client may begin treatment.
• Describe the use of the dropout rule in pre-treatment.
• Create Life Worth Living Goals for treatment planning in pre-treatment.
• Create a target hierarchy for DBT Stage 1.
• Discuss the principles for dealing with crisis situations that arise prior to formal commitment to DBT.

This training brought to you through a partnership with the State of New Mexico Health Care Authority, Behavioral Health Services Division and the Children Youth and Families Department, Behavioral Health Services.

Interested to Learn More about New Mexico's DBT Initiative?