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Multi-Family DBT Skills Group
Grounded in the core skills of DBT, the multi-family group experience helps parents take their love and good intentions for their child to a new level. By working as a whole team, Compass clinicians teach families how to learn the DBT skills together. Our multi-family group experience is 6-7 months long and includes up to 10 families, including both parents and their child.
Why Multi-Family?
Home is where DBT skills matter most, and where they can be hardest to use. When a teen learns skills alone, the rest of the family may not know the language, the steps, or how to respond when things get tough. When the whole family learns together, everyone practices the same skills, and the home becomes a place where skills are noticed, supported and used.
Our group is built on a no-blame philosophy. Teens and family members are both doing the best they can, and both can learn new ways to respond. Families also find out they are not alone. Sitting with other families who share similar struggles is often a relief in itself.
This group is part of DBT treatment. It is not family therapy, and it is not a stand-alone parent course.
Who it’s for
The Multi-Family DBT Skills Group is for teens who are already in DBT treatment with Compass and for the family members who support them. It is not a stand-alone entry point.
Family members of all kinds are welcome:
Parents, siblings, grandparents, and anyone who directly shapes your teen’s quality of life.
At least one family member attends every week with the teen.
Others can come as often as they are able.
Up to 10 families per group,
so there is room to participate and get to know each other.
What families learn together
The group follows the standard DBT skills training model. Over about six months, we cycle through the following skill modules, with mindfulness revisited between each one:
Mindfulness
Paying attention to the present moment, on purpose and without judgment, so you can pause before reacting.
Emotional Regulation
Understanding emotions, lowering vulnerability to intense feelings, and changing emotions that aren’t helping.
Distress Tolerance
Getting through painful moments and urges without making things worse.
Interpersonal Effectiveness
Asking for what you need, saying no, and keeping relationships and self-respect, including validating each other.
Group Guidelines
We follow standard DBT group guidelines so that the group is safe, focused and respectful for every family.
We keep group focused on skills.
Therapy targets are not discussed in group; those are addressed in each teen’s individual therapy.
Privacy and respect.
What families share in group stays in group, and every member is treated with respect.
What happens in a session
Each group runs for 2 hours and 2 clinicians, a leader and a co-leader, guide every session.
1. Mindfulness practice
Every session opens with a short practive together
2. Homework review
Teens and siblings meet in one room and parents in another. Each group has space to talk openly about what they tried, what worked, and what got in the way.
3. Teaching new skills
Everyone comes back together to learn the new material at the same time.
4. Homework assignment
Each session ends wit a practice assignment tied to the new skills, so the skill is tried at home that week.
Led by DBT-Linehan Board Certified clinicians.
What the research says
DBT was developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan and is recognized as an evidence-based practice. In a randomized clinical trial of 12- to 18-year-olds at high risk for suicide, published in *JAMA Psychiatry* in 2018, teens who received DBT were about one-third as likely to self-harm at six months as teens who received individual and group-supported therapy. DBT in that study included multi-family skills training, individual therapy, phone coaching and a therapist consultation team. The group is one important part of that full program.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is this family therapy?
No. It is a DBT skills training group for teens and their families. Skills are taught, practiced and reviewed together. Individual DBT therapy and any family sessions happen separately, with your teen’s treatment team.
Does a family member have to come every week?
At least one family member attends each week with your teen. Other family members, including siblings and grandparents, are welcome to join as well.
Can siblings and grandparents attend?
Yes. Siblings join the teen group during homework review. Grandparents and other relatives who are part of your teen’s daily life are welcome, too.
Can my teen join if we are not already in treatment at Compass?
The group is part of DBT treatment and is not a stand-alone entry point. Call us and we’ll help you find the right starting place.
Join Multi-Family Group
Compass provides outpatient and residential treatment for teens where Mulit-Family Group is apart of programming.
Find out more!
“I am able to go home and use the stills I have learned to tolerate distress, bullying, discrimination, invalidation, and self-doubt. Because of this, I KNOW that I will be able to build and live my life worth living, which is something I never really believed was possible before I came to Compass.”