DBT Skills is one component of standard Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Their primary goal is to strengthen participants’ abilities by teaching practical, behavioral skills that can be applied in daily life. Groups are structured like a class: a leader teaches the skills, assigns practice exercises (homework), and guides participants in bringing these tools into real-world situations. Typically, groups meet weekly for about 2.5 hours, and it takes 24 weeks to cover the full skills curriculum. This cycle is often repeated, creating a year-long program. Shorter formats, focused on select skills, have also been developed to meet the needs of specific populations and settings.

The DBT skills fall into four core areas:

1. Mindfulness – learning to be fully aware and present in the current moment.

2. Distress Tolerance – building the ability to tolerate and survive painful situations without making them worse.

3. Interpersonal Effectiveness – developing skills to ask for what you need, set boundaries, and maintain relationships while preserving self-respect.

4. Emotion Regulation – learning how to understand, reduce vulnerability to, and change unwanted emotions.