This training introduces mental health professionals to foundational dialectics in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), with a focus on understanding and working with “States of Mind.” As the second instalment in a practitioner-focused DBT series, this session provides a structured framework for helping clients navigate the tensions between thought, feeling, and behaviour.
Participants will explore the core dialectics that underpin DBT and learn how to apply these concepts to increase insight, improve emotion regulation, and guide clients toward accessing their Wise Mind—a synthesis of emotional and rational awareness.
Sections
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this talk, participants will be able to:
Differentiate between Emotion Mind, Rational Mind, and Wise Mind, and describe their relevance in clinical work.
Apply the dialectic of “Inside vs. Outside” to support clients in recognising internal experience vs. outward behaviour.
Facilitate client understanding of the Acceptance vs. Change dialectic to promote growth without invalidation.
Use DBT’s model of States of Mind as a psychoeducational and therapeutic tool.
Help clients develop awareness of their dominant cognitive-emotional state and transition toward more integrated responses.
This video is accompanied by a file of diagrams and written summaries supporting the teaching, and a set of links to public video clips to illustrate points made.
This video can be watched on its own, but if you would like to watch the clinical framework of DBT, you can see it here.
Personality Disorders: Theoretical framework and formulation