Multi-Family DBT
Skills Training
About the Skills Trainers:
Classes for adolescents and parents
who want to learn and develop:
 Ways to manage emotions
effectively
 Communication skills to
improve interpersonal
relationships
 Strategies to get through crises
without making things worse
 Mindfulness skills to approach
life with more acceptance and
understanding
 Walking the Middle Path
Mindfulness
Distress
Tolerance
Walking
the
Middle
path
Emotion
Regulation
Interpersonal
Effectiveness
Classes available now:
Days: Mondays
Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Where: 4649 Sunnyside
Ave N Seattle, WA 98103
Class participants must also be in
individual therapy, at least once
per month, while in skills training
classes.
For More Info Contact:
Cunningham Psychological Services PLLC
Ronnie Cunningham PhD:
[email protected] (206) 335-8783
Dr. Ronnie Cunningham is the main
facilitator of the skills class and has been
running DBT groups for more than three
years. He is a Washington State licensed
psychologist and certified school
psychologist. He currently teaches in the
graduate program in the College of
Education at the UW and has a private
psychology practice in Seattle. For more
than twenty years he has worked as a
school teacher, head high school football
coach, and psychologist in several
educational, clinical and non-profit
settings with families and students of all
ages.
Zoey Phillips: Zoey is a 2nd year
graduate student in the Educational
Psychology department at the University
of Washington who co-facilitates the
DBT Skills Group. She completed
intensive training in DBT in 2015 and is
currently collaborating on research
examining suicide prevention in local
high schools. She is also assisting with a
class teaching resiliency skills to early
childhood educators at the UW. Zoey
received her bachelor’s degree in
psychology from Humboldt State
University.
Multi-Family DBT
Skills Training Classes
Improve your ability to manage to
your emotions
Stop hurting yourself with behaviors
you can’t control
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), created by Marsha Linehan, Ph.D., ABPP, at the University of
Washington, is a thorough cognitive-behavioral treatment that was originally developed to address
treatment of chronically suicidal individuals suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Research has shown that DBT is effective at treating individuals with suicidal and other multiple
occurring significant dysfunctional behaviors. Clinical trials using DBT programs for treating adolescent
based difficulties associated with suicidal, self-harmful and other quality of life interfering behaviors are
currently being done. Initial findings suggest its use is an effective intervention approach for this
population.
Why DBT works:
DBT is not a suicide prevention program. It is a
‘life worth living program’ (Linehan, 1993). It
balances therapeutic warmth, empathy and
acceptance of the person dealing with difficult
circumstances through strategic behavioral
change strategies that address negativistic or
problematic thinking styles and teaches the
individual to more effectively regulate their
emotional and interpersonal experiences.
DBT Modes:
1. Skills Training * – teaches new
behavior skills through mindfulness,
emotion regulation, distress tolerance,
and interpersonal effectiveness.
2. Individual Therapy – helps the
individual to apply what is learned in
skills training to their life outside of
therapy.
3. Telephone Coaching – helps the
individual further generalize the
development of effective coping when
in crises.
4. Structuring the Environment * –
support through consultation &
restructuring of the individual’s
environments (family & friends).
5. Consultation Team – therapy for the
therapists to support their work with
clients in skills training & therapy.
* Please Note: This skills training class will
cover Modes 1 & 4.