Carolina Integrative Psychotherapy, Inc.
  Carolina Integrative Psychotherapy DBT Family Skills
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  • Home
  • Dialectical Behavior Therapy
    • What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy?
    • Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Families
    • Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Couples
    • Resources for Families, Couples & Friends
    • Client Forms & Worksheets
    • Online Training Information
  • Upcoming Classes
  • Blogs
    • Blog: Head, Heart & Hands
    • Blog for Fellow Therapists
    • Recent Resources via Twitter
  • About John Mader
  • Contact & Request Information
  • Maps
  • Mindfulness in Clinical Practice and Daily Life
  • DBT Guided Mindfulness Practices
  • Coping with Covid Resources
  • CIP Good Faith Estimate Notice

Upcoming classes 

This coming Fall 2025...
* DBT Skills Group for Couples
* DBT Skills Group of Therapists and Educators



DBT Skillz for Therapists - September to December 2025

DBT Skillz for Therapists - Interpersonal Effectiveness & Mindfulness - Fall 2025.

In January, Johnna Pilipchuk and John Mader will be offering the Interpersonal Effectiveness (with Core Mindfulness) Skillz for Therapists.  Meggan Moorhead, founder of Triangle Area DBT (TADBiT) created this unique format of a DBT skills group designed for therapists to deepening their practice of these skills. In 2016, Meggan asked John and Jeanette Sarbo to continue to offer this resource of "learning by doing."

In this 2025 online edition of DBT Skillz for Therapists, John will be joined by Johnna, Pilipchuk, LPA.  
Johnna has completed DBT Intensive training.  

We are looking forward to again sharing these skills with our colleagues in this online gathering. This is an opportunity for learning by doing among supportive colleagues. 

The text we will be using is Marsha Linehan's DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets.  We are committed to helping therapists learn DBT with adherence to the model as developed by Dr. Linehan. You can find more details at https://www.triangleareadbt.com/dbt-skillz-for-therapists. The fee is $75 per session ($600 for 8 sessions) with an advance payment option of $480, as well as further reduced fee slots for students, trainees and providers with financial need. We want to reinforce effective practice of the "DEAR" skills!


Please begin the registration process here. We will send instructions with the link to access the online class.

Schedule of Skillz. Wednesdays 9-1045am
9/10/2025
9/24/2025
10/8/2025
10/22/2025
11/5/2025
11/19/2025
12/3/2025
12/17/2025

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
​


​DBT Skills for Couples - Fall 2025.

Online Course, Tuesday Evenings 6:30-8:00pm, September-December 2025
DBT Skills for Couples. DBT Skills for Couples provides perspectives and strategies to more effectively cope with intense emotional patterns and disagreements, to communicate accurately and with validation, and to deepen the intimacy we desire in our most important relationships. The Registration link is at the end of this description.

Where/When: This now 15-week series is held online on Tuesday evenings, 6:30-8:00pm. See schedule below. We continue to explore effective presentations of these skills and perspectives as an online course. The classes will use Google Meet which does allow for telephone access in the event that your internet signal strength is weak. 

A feature of the 2024 course:  
  • THREE Discussion/Skills Coaching Sessions during the course on Tuesday evenings. 
Learning Objectives: A description of the key learning objectives for each week of the DBT Skills for Couples can be found on this page: www.dbtfamilyskills.com/dialectical-behavior-therapy-for-couples.html
The DBT Skills for Couples course is based on Alan Fruzzetti’s The High Conflict Couple: A DBT Guide to Finding Peace, Intimacy and Validation. This will be the text for the course and can be purchased from many local bookstores or from New Harbinger at https://www.newharbinger.com/high-conflict-couple.  

Format: Members receive handouts and worksheets for each class. Every session begins with a mindfulness exercise, followed by a 15 minute Q&A to offer additional feedback/coaching by the group leader(s). We continue with the teaching and exercises for the new skills. This is the format of a class, rather than a therapy group which features interpersonal processing between group members or members of a family. The focus is on becoming more skillful, so you will be practicing with your partner. You will not be expected to share personal information.
This is a class, not therapy. Past participants have appreciated the benefit of also having their own couple/family/individual therapy while applying these DBT skills to the challenging events of the week. Participants tend to be diverse across a range of age, race, gender, therapy experience, and interpersonal styles/levels of struggle. All seek to learn, to become more skillful, and to actively apply the skills from each class. The class will be recorded and the recording will be available for additional study. An email summary of key points and additional resources will be sent each week. We understand there may be evenings when you will be unable to attend.   *This course is not a substitute for a standard DBT Skills Group, a support group, process-oriented group therapy, or couple therapy. We will be happy to suggest ways to find those resources.

Fall 2024 Schedule 

Sep 2, 2025 - Understanding Emotion in Relationships
Sep 9
, 202​5 - Accepting Your Partner (and Yourself)
Sep 1​6
, 202​5 - How to Stop Making Things Worse
Sep 2​3, 202​5 -  Small Group Discussion/Skills Coaching

Sep 30, 202​5 - Being More Alive Together
Oct ​7, 202​5 - Healing and Reactivating Your Relationship
Oct 1​4, 202​5 - Accurate Expression via Emotion Regulation
Oct 2​1, 202​5 - 
Small Group Discussion/Skills Coaching  

Oct 28, 202​5 -  What and Why to Validate   
Nov ​4, 202​5- 
 How to Validate your Partner
Nov 1​1, 202​5 -  Recovering from Invalidation
Nov ​18, 202​5 - Small Group Discussion/Skills Coaching    

Nov 2​5, 202​5 -  Managing Problems/Negotiating Solutions    
Dec ​2, 202​5 -  Transforming Conflict into Closeness   
Dec 9, 2025 -  Pulling it All Together  

Cost: The fee for participating in this format of the online DBT Skills for Couples 15-week course is $850 for each couple. There is an Early Registration option of a single payment of $750, if sent with registration (reduced fee ends on August 16th if openings remain).  There are openings for 18 couples. Once the class is full, we will have a waiting list.
For those with limited financial resources, a reduced fee of $375 per couple, is available. We do not want the fee to be an obstacle to getting the skills you need (DBT therapists do strive to reinforce skillful asking), so please contact me if you need a further fee reduction to attend.​
The fee payment can be mailed to: CIP/Mader, 110 Circadian Way, Chapel Hill NC 27516 or paid using either PayPal with an additional 3% convenience fee to [email protected].
Complete your registration with the button below.    
Registration - Online DBT Skills for Couples

2025 DBT FST - 14 Weeks Starting Tuesdays 630pm ET Online in January 2026.  For a detailed description of the class, more information can be found here. 


​​PAST TRAININGS


.DBT Online Fundamentals Training for Psychotherapists, Educators and Helping Professionals - November 5th and 11th, 2022.

Training Schedule & Description
Registration Page

Janice Bainbridge, Melissa Miller, Kirk Mochrie and John Mader are leading an online introductory DBT Fundamentals Training on Saturday, November 5th and Friday, November 11th. 
We are especially pleased for you to have the opportunity to introduce you to Dialectical Behavior Therapy from the unique vantage of four different clinicians. We are committed to sharing the healing work that Marsha Linehan began nearly 40 years ago. Also, those of you who have attended previous DBT Intro trainings may find this a helpful refresher course. For students, as well as "Refresher" folks, we again have a reduced fee that could make this more affordable for you to participate. Description of the DBT Fundamentals Training can also be found at triangleareadbt.com.

The online format takes inspiration from "flip the classroom." 
· Participants will receive handouts of the slides, links to supporting materials, such as articles, skills handouts/worksheets, DBT video presentations. 
· Participants are asked to obtain at least one DBT book listed in the flyer.
· Each participant will submit at least one question about the content they read/viewed for the coming week's session. 
· The focus of the online session will be to address, discuss, and participate in experiential exercises based on your questions. The hope is for active, not passive, learning. Everyone stays awake! Validation Level One!  This introductory class was designed to help clinicians understand the potential application of DBT in your therapeutic skill set.

We hope that the week gap will provide more of an opportunity to digest the material, as well as to access additional resources and practice exercises.   





Introductory Half-Day of DBT for Families, Couples and Friends

Date: TBA when in-person workshops can resume
Location: TBA
​This four hour workshop aims to provide you with essential DBT skills that you can immediately apply to your particular needs. While not covering the material of the entire Family Skills Training, these four hours will be a substantial introduction to skills that can help break the perpetual negative feedback loop that prompts criticism, self-blame, or defensiveness in our intimate relationships. 

Each member will receive handouts. I will be sending participants some materials in advance to prepare for effective use of this workshop with your unique issues or patterns.  Cost for this half-day workshop is $100 per person and $150 per couple. $50 for students and those needing reduced fee (I do not want finances to prevent any interested family members from participating). 

To register for TADBiT DBT Family Skills Training Groups, use button below.  For more information, please contact John at [email protected].
Registration - Half-Day Intro
HALF-DAY WORKSHOP FLYER


​Schedule: Half-Day Intro to DBT for Families & Friends


8:45am
Registration
​9:00am
​​Introduction & Orientation to DBT for family members and friends
Mindfulness exercise

9:45am
Identifying the Problems as Individual Target Behaviors
The “Red Zone” of Emotion Dysregulation, Emotional Vulnerability & States of Mind Balanced Wise Mind and Mindfulness Skills
    ​​​
​11:00am​
Communicating with Validation Strategies
DEAR
Validation First ​
​​
Noon   Understanding the Patterns and Responding More Effectively
Responding to Red Zone Behaviors
Behavioral Chain of Problem & Solution Analysis

Next Steps and Practice: Your Ambitious Goals (with Commitment to Act)



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© Carolina Integrative Psychotherapy Inc., PC - 2025
​Chapel Hill & Carrboro, NC
​
Tel. 919.968.0231 x.1002
Follow @johncmader