Small Group Consultation in DBT Adherence for Individual Therapy

Description

This small group consultation is led by a DBT adherence expert/gold standard coder and is designed to provide feedback and support to clinicians working to improve their adherence to DBT. Participants will be expected to submit at least one DBT individual therapy session to be reviewed and coded for adherence by the group using the DBT Adherence Checklist for Individual Therapy (DBT AC-I). The leader will also code each session and provide written feedback to participants. Consultation group meetings will focus on discussing participants’ sessions, providing support and learning, and problem-solving barriers to delivering adherent DBT. Groups will be kept small (no more than 6) to facilitate individualized attention and will meet monthly for 75 minutes over 6 months (total = 7.5 hours). Cost and duration of group will be pro-rated if fewer than 6 clinicians enroll.

Additional Information

• Each month one participant will submit a session to be reviewed and coded by the group at least two weeks prior to the meeting.

• Participants will be required to attest that they have their client’s authorization to share their recorded session with the group for adherence coding purposes.

• Sessions submitted for review cannot be submitted to the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification for the purpose of attaining certification as a DBT therapist.

Who Should Participate

This consultation is intended for mental health professionals who:

• Have received DBT Intensive or Foundational training (or equivalent).

• Currently providing DBT individual therapy and are active members of a DBT consultation team.

• Agree to review the DBT AC-I and read the DBT AC-I manual prior to beginning of group.

• Preferred: Completion of 3-day “Getting to Adherence in DBT Individual Therapy” workshop.

Days/Times

One group is available at the following days/times.

1.     Thursdays 8:45-10:00am PT/11:45am-1:00pm ET with Sara Schmidt, PhD

• Dates: 10/8/26, 11/5/26, 12/3/26, 1/14/27, 2/4/27, 3/25/27

**Please note: if there are not enough clinicians to fill a group, it may not be offered. If there is considerable interest, a second group may be added.

Location

The consultation groups will meet via a HIPAA-compliant video conferencing platform.

Consultant

Sara Schmidt, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Washington State and a clinical instructor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington. Previously, she served as the co-Investigator on Dr. Melanie Harned’s NIMH-funded research at the University of Washington and the VA Puget Sound Health Care System and directed the graduate training program in DBT at Dr. Marsha Linehan’s Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics. As part of this work, she also co-developed the DBT Adherence Checklist for Individual Therapy (DBT AC-I), a tool that can be used by DBT therapists to evaluate the degree to which they are delivering DBT in a way that is consistent with the treatment manual. Dr. Schmidt regularly provides professional trainings and consultation in DBT and DBT PE nationally and internationally and has published several peer reviewed articles and book chapters on these topics. She is a Certified DBT Clinician by the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification.