Raising the Bar with DBT Training
Sunrise is thrilled to announce that every clinician is now comprehensively trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)! Last month, with collaboration from Behavioral Tech, Sunrise co-hosted a weeklong DBT Foundational Training™ to provide for therapists to become comprehensively trained in this important treatment. In addition to providing training to all Sunrise therapists not yet trained in DBT, this event also allowed 25 other therapists from around the country to participate in the training with us.
The overarching goal of DBT is to help people create a life worth living. By teaching our students the DBT skills we can help them experience a range of emotions without necessarily acting on those emotions, and help navigate relationships within their environment of family, school or peers. The goal at Sunrise is to not just teach the girls these important life skills, but also help them get them the practice they need in order to use them in their day-to-day lives. This is accomplished through our community approach and in-town location, getting the girls out in the community to practice using their skills in different contexts.
What does this training mean for our students at Sunrise?
While there are still other therapeutic modalities that Sunrise uses, we know that the research shows DBT to be 
effective with our clientele. As an evidence-based form of psychotherapy, DBT helps individuals experience a range of emotions without necessarily acting on those emotions, navigate relationships within their environment of family, school or peers, and create a life worth living. Thus, our common language that is used and that your client can receive support in 24/7 is DBT. The goal at Sunrise is to not just teach the girls the skills but get them the practice to use them. This is accomplished by our community approach and in town location, getting the girls out in the community practicing and using their skills in different contexts.
Walking the Middle Path
Learnings from our Residential Director, Noel Beaulieu
This past week I had the opportunity to learn more about DBT and how to train our staff to use it with our students. A lot of things stuck out to me and the one that stuck out the most was Walking the Middle Path.
My belief for a long time was that Walking the Middle Path was a compromise.
A small example of this would be a student who is asked to do something who doesn’t want to do it. At that point, we would talk and figure out a compromise. My new understanding of Walking the Middle Path is about balancing acceptance and change. It is trying to change the way you think about painful or difficult thoughts or what is going on around you while accepting the current circumstances. Walking the Middle Path with a student is more about listening and validating what they are saying. Asking them to change, and accept what is going on.
his training, I believe I have a better understanding of what Walking the Middle Path really means.What have you learned from DBT Therapy? Share with us in the comments below!
