Empowering Clinicians with Tools that Work: A DBT Skills Primer

An accessible introduction to DBT’s four core modules—mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness—to strengthen your therapeutic relationships and client outcomes.

 

Presenter

Marcus Rodriguez, PhD, is an Associate Professor and Director of the Global Mental Health Lab at Pitzer College, as well as the Clinical Director of the Youth and Family Institute. A licensed psychologist fluent in English, Spanish, and Mandarin, he is a renowned trainer in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and has taught thousands of mental health professionals around the world.

 

Presentation

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based treatment for clients who experience emotion dysregulation. This can look like intense emotional reactivity, high emotional sensitivity (often rapidly shifting emotions), difficulty with regulation, and lead to related behaviors such as angry outbursts, using substances, self-injuring, under/overeating, avoiding school or work, socially withdrawing, or abruptly ending relationships. These behaviors may momentarily relieve emotional pain but often lead to long-term challenges and difficulties leading a life that feels meaningful and worth living.

One key component of DBT is skills training to build more adaptive tools for managing emotion and relationships. In this training, Dr. Rodriguez presents a “toolbox” of skills and an accessible overview of the four foundational DBT skill modules:

• Mindfulness
• Distress Tolerance
• Emotion Regulation
• Interpersonal Effectiveness

Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how to integrate these skills into client work—and their own daily routines—with clarity and purpose.

 

What You Will Learn

• Identify the four DBT skills modules: mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness
• Specify the core skills within each module and how to apply them in everyday life
• Gain fundamental knowledge of how to teach and reinforce DBT skills with clients across clinical settings

Provider Wellness: Addressing Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Building Resilience & Post-Traumatic Growth

Explore real-world strategies for navigating burnout in high-demand clinical settings, grounded in positive psychology and focused on sustaining joy in your work.

 

Presenter

Dorit Saberi, PhD
Supervising Psychologist & Co-Founder/Clinical Director
Safe Harbor Trauma Recovery Center, Harbor UCLA Medical Center

Dr. Dorit Saberi is a nationally respected psychologist, educator, and clinical leader specializing in trauma-informed care and mental health resilience. She serves as a Health Sciences Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and as an investigator at the Lundquist Institute at Harbor UCLA. In addition to her clinical work and research, Dr. Saberi is the co-founder and Clinical Director of the Safe Harbor Trauma Recovery Center, where she leads cutting-edge trauma recovery initiatives. Her areas of expertise include crisis de-escalation, post-traumatic growth, DBT skills for families, and positive psychology. She is also Vice-Chair of the Board for Fostering Unity, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving family stability and well-being for foster children and caregivers.

 

Presentation

Provider Wellness: Addressing Burnout, Compassion Fatigue, and Building Resilience & Post-Traumatic Growth
Drawing on the latest research and clinical practices, Dr. Saberi offers a thoughtful and timely exploration of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious trauma—especially as experienced by frontline providers. This session blends evidence-based strategies with powerful insights from the Community Resiliency Model (CRM), positive psychology, a new conceptualization of Post-Traumatic Growth and the emerging science of “mature gratitude.” Through real-world case examples, videos and insights from her work at the Safe Harbor Trauma Recovery Center, Dr. Saberi reframes compassion fatigue as a call for growth, resilience, and healing.

 

What You Will Learn

• Define burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma, and recognize common signs and symptoms among providers
• Explain how stress affects the brain and how neuroplasticity can support recovery through positive psychology approaches and “rewiring”
• Apply resilience-building practices to promote post-traumatic growth in both personal and professional contexts