What You’ll Learn in DBT Skills Group: The Four Core Modules

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is known for its structured, skills-based approach to helping people navigate intense emotions, strengthen relationships, and cope more effectively with life’s challenges. At the center of DBT is skills training—a practical, hands-on part of therapy that offers real tools for creating meaningful change.

These skills are taught in both group and individual formats. They are organized into four modules: Core Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, and Distress Tolerance. Each set of skills supports a different area of emotional health. Together, they offer a comprehensive framework for building resilience, reducing suffering, and improving your quality of life.

What Are the Core Mindfulness Skills in DBT?

Mindfulness is at the heart of DBT. It helps you tune in to your thoughts, emotions, and actions so you can respond with intention, instead of reacting on impulse. These skills are designed to bring you into the present moment—because when you’re caught up in the past or worrying about the future, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or disconnected.

In DBT, mindfulness isn’t just a concept—it’s a set of practical tools that help you stay grounded and aware of what’s happening right now.

The Three States of Mind

In DBT, we talk about three different states of mind that we all move in and out of:

Reasonable Mind – This is the logical, fact-focused part of you that solves problems and stays calm under pressure.
Emotion Mind – This is where feelings take the wheel. You’re guided by urges, moods, and emotional reactions—sometimes at the expense of logic.
Wise Mind – This is the balanced place in between. It’s where reason and emotion work together. A Wise Mind is your deeper knowing—that quiet sense of what’s true and what matters, where clarity, intuition, and truth live.

Mindfulness helps you notice which state of mind you’re in and gives you tools to shift into a Wise Mind, especially when things feel intense or unclear.

The Core Mindfulness Skills

DBT breaks mindfulness down into two categories: What you do to be mindful and how you do it.

What Skills – What you do to practice mindfulness:

Observe – Simply notice what’s happening, both inside and around you, without trying to change it. This includes your thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and the world around you.
Describe – Put words to what you observe. Labeling your experience helps make it clearer and easier to work with.
Participate – Fully engage in the moment. Let yourself be completely in whatever you’re doing without self-consciousness or holding back.

How Skills – How you practice mindfulness:

Non-judgmentally – Notice and accept your experience without labeling it as good or bad. Just see it for what it is.
One-mindfully – Focus on one thing at a time. Let go of distractions and bring your full attention to this moment.
Effectively – Do what works. Not what feels fair, not what you wish would work—just what actually moves you toward your goals.

These skills help you stay grounded, reduce emotional reactivity, and build a deeper connection with your Wise Mind.

What Are Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills in DBT?

Interpersonal effectiveness skills help you build and maintain healthier relationships—while also staying true to yourself. These skills give you tools to ask for what you need, set limits, say no when needed, and handle conflict with clarity and confidence.

In DBT, interpersonal effectiveness centers on three key goals, each supported by specific skills: maintaining strong relationships, preserving your self-respect, and getting your needs met.

1. Be Skillful in Getting What You Want and Need from Others

This set of skills helps you clarify your goals, communicate effectively, and navigate challenging conversations—whether you’re asking for something, setting a limit, or saying no.

Clarifying Priorities – Deciding what matters most in a given situation: the outcome, the relationship, or your self-respect.
DEAR MAN – A step-by-step strategy for asking for what you want or saying no:
- Describe, Express, Assert, Reinforce
- Stay Mindful, Appear confident, Negotiate
GIVE – Skills for maintaining the relationship while speaking up:
- Gentle, Interested, Validate, Easy manner
FAST – Skills to protect your self-respect:
- Fair, (no overly excessive) Apologies, Stick to values, Truthful
Factors to Consider – Internal and external factors that affect how strongly you use skills (e.g., the importance of the outcome, power dynamic, or potential consequences).

2. Build Relationships and End Destructive Ones

Relationships are essential for well-being—and also a common source of pain. These skills help you connect with others, recognize when a relationship is harmful, and take steps to build or end connections intentionally.

Finding and Getting People to Like You – Practical strategies for building new relationships and increasing likability without losing your authenticity.
Mindfulness of Others – Paying attention to the needs, limits, and emotions of others while staying grounded in your own experience.
Ending Destructive or Interfering Relationships – Knowing when a relationship is no longer healthy and how to step away when it’s time to move on.

3. Walk the Middle Path (Balance Needs of Self and Others)

This set of skills is about finding balance—between your needs and someone else’s, between structure and flexibility, and between acceptance and change. They’re especially helpful in family or caregiving relationships, and they apply to all kinds of human connections.

Dialectics – Learning to hold two truths at the same time, such as “I’m doing the best I can” and “I need to do better.”
Validation – Communicating that someone else’s feelings, thoughts, or experiences make sense—even if you disagree.
Recovering from Invalidation – Recognizing when you feel dismissed or misunderstood, and learning how to manage that pain without shutting down or lashing out.
Strategies for Changing Behavior – Encouraging positive change in others using reinforcement, feedback, and clear communication—without threats, guilt, or manipulation.

These skills help you strengthen relationships, speak up for yourself, stay connected to your values, and build a life that includes respectful, meaningful connections—without losing yourself in the process.

What Are the Emotion Regulation Skills in DBT?

Emotion regulation skills help you make sense of your emotions, reduce emotional suffering, and build a more balanced emotional life. In DBT, you’ll learn practical tools to work with emotions—whether they feel overwhelming, confusing, or just hard to manage. These skills are grouped into four key areas, each offering support in a different way.

1. Understand and Name Your Own Emotions

Before you can shift how you respond to emotions, you first need to understand what you’re feeling—and why. DBT starts here with two foundational skills:

Observing and Describing Emotions – You’ll learn how to notice emotions as they show up in your body and mind and how to put words to what you’re experiencing. Labeling emotions gives you clarity, and clarity creates choice.
Understanding the Function of Emotions – Emotions aren’t random. They serve important purposes—like signaling danger, motivating action, or connecting us to other people. When you understand why an emotion is there, it becomes easier to decide what to do with it.

2. Decrease the Frequency of Unwanted Emotions

Sometimes, emotions show up fast and strong—and they don’t always match what’s really going on. These skills help you shift your emotional experience when the emotion doesn’t fit the facts or isn’t helping you respond effectively.

Check the Facts –This skill helps you slow down and ask: Does this emotion actually fit the situation, or is it based on assumptions, fears, or past experiences? Checking the facts helps you respond from Wise Mind instead of Emotion Mind.
Opposite Action – When an emotion doesn’t fit the facts or acting on it wouldn’t be effective, DBT teaches you to do the opposite of what the emotion is urging you to do. It’s a powerful way to interrupt emotional spirals.
Problem Solving – If the emotion does fit the facts, sometimes the best move is to address the situation directly. This skill helps you take practical steps to change what can be changed.

3. Decrease Emotional Vulnerability

Strong emotions are harder to manage when you’re depleted—physically, mentally, or emotionally. This set of skills helps you build a stronger foundation so you’re less likely to be thrown off by everyday stress.

Accumulating Positives (Short-Term & Long-Term) – Make space for things that bring joy, meaning, and connection. Even small positive moments can help shift your emotional baseline over time.
Build Mastery – Strengthen your confidence by taking on challenges, setting goals, and doing things that help you feel capable and in control.
Cope Ahead – Prepare for situations that might bring up strong emotions so you’re ready with a plan instead of getting caught off guard.
PLEASE Skills – Take care of your physical health to support your emotional health. This includes treating illnesses, eating balanced meals, avoiding mood-altering substances, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly.

4. Decrease Emotional Suffering

Even when emotions fit the facts, they can still be painful. These skills help you experience emotions fully without getting stuck or making things worse:

Mindfulness of Current Emotions – Allowing yourself to fully experience the emotion without avoiding, judging, or trying to escape it.
Managing Extreme Emotions – Using crisis survival skills from Distress Tolerance to stay steady during emotional storms.
Troubleshooting – Noticing what’s getting in the way of using your skills, and figuring out how to adjust.

What Are the Distress Tolerance Skills of DBT?

Distress tolerance skills help you survive emotional pain without making things worse. These skills are for moments when life feels overwhelming, emotions are intense, or things are out of your control. Instead of acting on urges that might lead to regret—like lashing out, shutting down, using substances, or self-harming—these skills give you concrete ways to get through the crisis.

In DBT, distress tolerance skills are grouped into two main categories:

1. Crisis Survival Skills

Sometimes life hits hard, and your brain goes into full-blown panic mode. When that happens, it’s nearly impossible to think clearly—let alone make a wise decision. DBT offers practical tools to help you survive emotional storms without making things worse.

STOP Skill – A pause button when you’re about to react. Stop, Take a step back, Observe, and Proceed mindfully.

When Emotions Peak and Your Body Feels Hijacked

TIP Skills – Fast ways to shift your body’s chemistry to calm your nervous system. This includes:
- Tip the temperature lower your body temperature quickly to reduce emotional arousal.
- Intense exercise: release excess energy and shift your internal state.
- Paced breathing and Paired muscle relaxation: activate the parasympathetic nervous system to calm your body.

When You Need to Get Through the Moment Without Making It Worse

Other skills that help you tolerate distress without acting impulsively or shutting down.

Distract with ACCEPTS – Refocus your mind using Activities, Contributing, Comparisons, Emotions, Pushing away, Thoughts, or Sensations.
Self-Soothe – Use your five senses to bring comfort, such as music, calming scents, or sipping warm tea.
IMPROVE the Moment – Use imagery, meaning, prayer, relaxation, focusing on one thing in the moment, taking a vacation, or encouragement to get through the moment.
Pros and Cons – Weigh the short- and long-term consequences of acting on urges versus using your skills.
These skills don’t change the situation—but they can help you make it through without making it worse.

2. Reality Acceptance Skills

Sometimes, what’s happening is simply out of your control. These skills help you stop fighting reality so you can reduce suffering and respond more effectively.

Radical Acceptance – Fully accepting the moment as it is without approval or resignation. It’s acknowledging reality – even when it’s painful – so you can stop adding extra layers of suffering.
Turning the Mind – Choosing acceptance again and again, especially when your mind keeps pulling you back into resistance.
Willingness vs. Willfulness – Willingness means doing what works, even when it’s hard. Willfulness shows up as resisting, shutting down, or digging in your heels.
Half-Smile and Willing Hands – Small physical gestures that soften your body’s resistance and help open the door to acceptance.
Mindfulness of Current Thoughts – Observing your thoughts without judging or trying to change them. This helps you step back from spiraling or getting stuck in painful thinking patterns.

These skills help you accept reality as it is—even when it’s not what you wanted—so you can stop suffering and start living more effectively.

Build Real-Life Skills in DBT Skills Group – Las Vegas, NV

If you’re tired of feeling emotionally overwhelmed, stuck in the same patterns, or unsure how to navigate conflict and stress, DBT Skills Training Group can offer structured support and real tools to help you move forward. This isn’t just talk therapy—it’s a space to build practical skills you can use in everyday life, with guidance and support along the way.

At Integrative Path Therapy (formerly DBT Center of South Bay), I offer in-person DBT Skills Training Groups in Las Vegas, NV. Additionally, I provide the option to join a waitlist for virtual groups, available across California, Nevada, and Oregon if that format that works better for you.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Contact me to learn more about upcoming DBT Skills Training Group openings. I’m happy to answer any questions and help you figure out what might be a good fit.

You don’t have to do this alone. Real change is possible—and I’d be honored to walk with you as you build something new.

Other Services Integrative Path Therapy Offers

When emotions feel intense, or life feels unmanageable, DBT Skills Training Groups can offer the structure and support to help you build stability, confidence, and a stronger sense of control. These groups are designed to help you respond to challenges more intentionally—with practical skills for managing emotions, navigating relationships, and coping with stress.

At Integrative Path Therapy, I work with adults navigating emotional dysregulation, trauma, and complex life stressors. In addition to DBT Skills Training Groups, I provide Comprehensive DBT, trauma-focused therapy, and EMDR. I offer therapy for individuals, couples, and families, as well as consultation and DBT training for clinicians. My practice includes support for adults dealing with suicidal ideation, self-harm, dissociation, and other high-intensity concerns.

Services are available in person in Las Vegas, NV, and Torrance, CA, as well as online throughout California, Nevada, and Oregon.

There’s no single path to healing—and that’s okay. Whether you’re starting with a DBT Skills Group or looking for more personalized therapy, we’ll work together to find the approach that fits you best.

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