DBT Training FAQs.
What is the eligibility criteria for APT’s DBT training?
Our DBT courses are for people who are 'post qualification', in other words qualified as clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health nurses, occupational therapists, or social workers. The majority of people who come on the courses are from the first three groups but the important requirement is that attendees have a professional background that has taught them the standard clinical skills and standard professional skills such as confidentiality etc.
What’s the best phased approach to APT’s DBT training?
Our suggestion for a phased approach to the training would be as follows:
- Step one, attend the DBT Essentials course. This will give you APT’s Level 1 accreditation in DBT.
- Step two, within a month or so, attend the Running DBT Skills Development groups course (which teaches you to convey crucial life skills to patients, usually in groups). This will give you APT’s Level 2 accreditation in DBT.
- Step three, sit the (free of charge) exam online. This will give you APT’s Level 3 accreditation in DBT.
- Deliver DBT to your patients, setting up as good a service as you can, for about six months. Then attend the Masterclass (four days). This will give you a chance to address any problems, build on good things that happened, check that you are running good consultation groups and giving telephone support, obtain an expert view on your service, and so on. This will give you APT’s Level 4 accreditation in DBT. Most attendees should be able to reach this level.
- Any time after that, if you are very committed, to write a (specified) project aimed at obtaining APT's level 5 accreditation in DBT. This is a demanding project and only about half those who submit obtain a pass mark at the first attempt.
Do these courses provide supervision? If not where do we get it from?
No, it is the service’s responsibility to provide supervision. Where do people get it from?
1. Sometimes from local DBT-knowledgeable professionals (often clinical psychologists) either 1:1 or in groups.
2. other times as ‘peer-supervision’ (often people on the course who arrange properly to meet up – often in groups – to provide this for each other).
3. Also the DBT ‘consult’ is an inbuilt form of (peer) supervision.
4. Also our Masterclass has supervision elements in it, but as it is a once-off can’t rightly be regarded as supervision, except as one component of a package.
If I attend the extended training in DBT can I say that I am a DBT Therapist and put that on my CV?
Full transparency is always the best policy. So if you successfully complete the extended training, you can rightly add that fact to you CV. You might say something like: I am a clinical psychologist and in 2016 I successfully completed APT’s extended training in DBT. This involved attending 10 days of teaching spread over six months, passing a written exam, and submitting a 4,000-word work-based project at the set level.
If I attend the DBT Essentials course can I say that I am DBT-qualified and put that on my CV?
Full transparency is always the best policy. So if you complete the DBT Essentials course, you can rightly add that fact to you CV. You might say something like: I am a mental health nurse and in 2016 attended APT’s Course DBT Essentials. This involved three teaching days totaling 18 taught hours.
If I study the DBT Essentials course online can I say that I am DBT-qualified / am a DBT therapist and put that on my CV?
Full transparency is always the best policy. So if you successfully complete the DBT Essentials course online, you can rightly add that fact to you CV. You might say something like: I am a mental health nurse and in 2016 successfully completed APT’s Course DBT Essentials online. This is based on APT’s live course DBT Essentials, which in its live version involves three teaching days totaling 18 taught hours.
