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Drs. Alec Miller & Jill Rathus describe the importance of bringing DBT into school settings in order to build resiliency and reduce problem behaviors in adolescents. Dawn Catucci, school psychologist at Ardsley high school describes her experience implementing DBT in her school setting.

Dr. Miller and his colleagues at CBC have developed two types of DBT for schools: Comprehensive DBT and Universal DBT.

Comprehensive School-Based DBT (CSB-DBT)*

(Miller, Rathus & Linehan, 2007; Rathus & Miller, 2015) Targets youth who exhibit at least some degree of emotional and behavioral dysregulation and uses all of the DBT modes of treatment. This model is more broadly considered secondary and tertiary prevention interventions and often pull students out of class for individual counseling and skills group.

*Rathus, J.H., & Miller, A.L. (2015). DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents. The Guilford Press, NY.

Dexter-Mazza, E.T., et al. (2020). DBT Services in Schools for Adolescents. In, Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Clinical Practice, 2^nd Edition. Dimeff, LA, & Rizvi, S. (Eds). Guilford Press.

Miller, A.L., et al. (2020). Research of DBT in Schools. Handbook of Research on Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Bedics, J (Ed). Elsevier.

Universal Classroom DBT (UC-DBT)*

(DBT Skills Training in Schools: The Skills Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents; DBT STEPS-A, Mazza, Mazza, Miller, Rathus & Murphy, 2016) This program is intended for teachers to teach DBT skills in a classroom setting.

Some schools have opted to conduct both types of DBT offering primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions within the school with several goals in mind:

• Providing a common social-emotional skills-based language for all students, teachers, clinicians, and administrators

• These skills can be taught early in the child’s life with the hope of preventing and averting some of the more challenging problems that arise in later adolescence

• Providing comprehensive DBT to students already exhibiting significant emotional and behavioral dysregulation allows the school to manage and maintain these students within the district rather than having to pay for the student to attend out-of-district placements

• Providing comprehensive DBT in schools often reduces ER, psychiatric, and medical hospitalization visits, while keeping kids in school

• Providing DBT improves emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes

• Providing DBT is an evidence-based intervention that can be used transdiagnostically hence having greater applicability to a broader number of students

• Providing DBT can help reduce staff and administrator burnout by providing everyone with the necessary tools to effect change in many students

• DBT is school-friendly in that DBT skills can be taught in classrooms and groups

Alec Miller and his team at CBC have consulted with over 100 schools nationally that have or are currently implementing DBT.

For more information about DBT in schools and to inquire about implementing DBT into your school, visit CBC's website.

*Mazza, J.J., Dexter-Mazza, ET, Miller, AL, Rathus, JH, & Murphy, HE, (2016). DBT Skills Training in Schools: The Skills Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents (DBT STEPS-A). The Guilford Press, NY.