Using Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Strategies to
Manage Difficult, Therapy-Interfering Behaviours

John R. Wagner, Ph.D., R.Psych.

Friday, May 7th 2010

DBT Centre of Vancouver
Suite 400, 1681 Chestnut St.
Vancouver, BC V6J 4M6

9:00am to 4:00pm

The DBT Centre of Vancouver is pleased to announce a one-day workshop designed to assist clinicians struggling with treatment-resistant clients. This workshop will provide participants with practical DBT strategies to manage such therapy-interfering behaviours as inconsistent attendance, lateness, angry outbursts, and failure to follow through with homework. The special workshop is limited to 10 participants to facilitate attention to individual cases and will include didactics, video, discussion, and practicing of new strategies.

Why Attend?

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is the most widely researched treatment for problems characteristic of Borderline Personality Disorder, including recurrent self-harm and suicidality, impulsivity, and problems managing emotions. Special attention is given in DBT to reducing behaviours that frequently interfere with treatment. In fact, DBT is unique, as one of the only cognitive-behavioural therapies that place a high priority on addressing difficult client behaviours and helping therapists maintain compassion in the face of emotional storms and chaos.

This unique workshop is designed to teach clinicians strategies regularly used in DBT for better understanding problems encountered with clients and methods for reducing their occurrence. Participants will be taught:

• chain analyses to more thoroughly assess the problem
• behavioural principles for determining the function of such behaviours
• non-judgmental techniques for enhancing acceptance and change
• mindfulness strategies for better managing you and your client’s distress
• validation for reducing emotional intensity and building stronger working alliances

Participants will be given time to discuss individual cases and problems encountered in therapy. Special attention will be given through discussion, practice, and coaching to assist participants in applying DBT strategies to identified problems.

Training Objectives

The primary goal of this workshop is to teach clinicians strategies regularly used in DBT to understand and manage the types of therapy-interfering behaviours that often frustrate and overwhelm clinicians. At the end of this session, participants should be able to:

• Use strategies to better understand client’s therapy interfering behaviours
• Recognize the role of behavioural principles in hindering change
• Describe the seven different levels of validation used in DBT
• Employ non-judgmental techniques to improve empathy
• Use mindfulness techniques to reduce one`s own emotional reactivity
• Apply strategies for better accepting emotion provoking behaviours
• Identify at least three techniques you can use for facilitating change with a particular client

About John R. Wagner, Ph.D., R.Psych.

John Wagner, Ph.D. is a registered psychologist in the province of British Columbia and licensed in the state of Washington. He is the Director of the Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Centre of Vancouver and obtained his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Toledo. Dr. Wagner completed a two year post-doctoral fellowship working with Dr. Marsha Linehan, who is a professor at the University of Washington and the developer of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). He also worked with Dr. Anthony DuBose and the rest of the staff at the DBT Centre of Seattle.

Dr. Wagner has previously served as the Clinic Associate Director in the Psychology Department at the University of British Columbia. He has taught courses on DBT at the University of Washington and the University of British Columbia. He regularly supervises doctoral students in providing DBT, consults with mental health providers, and provides workshops and talks on DBT and borderline personality disorder. In addition, Dr. Wagner has been trained as a DBT adherence coder for the Behavioral Research & Therapy Clinics at the University of Washington. He has expertise in the treatment of borderline personality disorder, suicidal behaviour, self harm, and other mental health problems among both adolescents and adults.

Who Should Attend?

This workshop is designed for psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, counsellors, and other mental health professions struggling with hard to treat behaviours. The workshop will be most useful for clinicians using a behavioural, cognitive-behavioural, dialectical behavioural or mindfulness-based approach. Attendees will receive 6 CE credits and a certificate confirming attendance for continuing education purposes.

Registration

This special workshop is limited to ten participants and will be filled on a first-come basis. As the workshop will likely fill up quickly, it is recommended that interested participants register as soon as possible. The fee for the workshop is $165.00 and will include all workshop materials and light snacks and beverages. You can register by completing the registration form and mailing a cheque or the requested credit card information to:

DBT Centre of Vancouver
Suite 400, 1681 Chestnut St.
Vancouver, BC V6J 4M6

(Note: The workshop is now full. We hope to offer a similar one again later in the year. Please contact us at to be the first to know about workshop availability.)

Getting There

The workshop will be held at the DBT Centre of Vancouver located at the above address (map). If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Dr. Wagner via email at john@dbtvancouver.com or 778.838.6875.