Infusing Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills into Supervision to Address Challenges and Enhance Performance

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based, widely used approach to treat various mental health issues, including, but not limited to borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, and substance use disorders. Supervisees and counselors-in-training often struggle with anxiety, stress, and confidence during training. Supervision is one of the most common and essential contexts for supervisees to address counseling challenges. The core DBT components have the potential for creative adaptation to address the common supervisee challenges and assist in skill development and theoretical modeling. This article presents the four DBT skills and shares best practices for use to address shared supervisee struggles.