Is this a DBT workshop?

This workshop is DBT-informed, but it will fill the gaps of traditional DBT as we offer additional Psych Collective skills.

Is this workshop suitable for beginners?

Yes! This workshop is designed for both beginners and experienced clinicians looking to enhance their knowledges of skills to offer clients who frequently present with distress and emotional dysregulation.

Will there be practical demonstrations?

Absolutely. The workshop includes live demonstrations and opportunities for participants to practise skills in a supportive environment.

Working with Distressed Clients Workshop

Working with distressed, overwhelmed, and emotionally dysregulated clients is one of the most common — and most challenging — parts of clinical practice. Many clients don’t need long explanations or complex formulations in the moment of distress — they need clear, structured, practical skills that help them regulate quickly and safely.

This one-day workshop, Working With Distressed Clients, is designed to give clinicians a clear framework for understanding distress and a toolkit of targeted skills to use with clients who are overwhelmed, impulsive, emotionally reactive, shut down, or in crisis.

This workshop integrates ideas from DBT, schema therapy, trauma-informed practice, and neuroscience, and translates them into simple language, practical interventions, and repeatable teaching tools you can use immediately in session.

What You Will Learn

By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

Understand and explain the Distress Cycle to clients
Identify early warning signs of emotional escalation
Use Mindfulness of the Dot to help clients step out of emotional spirals
Teach a clear, simple model of emotions that clients actually understand
Apply distress tolerance skills in the moment of overwhelm
Teach emotion regulation strategies that reduce future crises
Structure sessions when clients arrive distressed, dysregulated, or in crisis
Help clients understand the difference between distress tolerance vs emotion regulation
Create prevention plans to reduce repeated distress episodes
Use simple metaphors and scripts to improve client engagement and follow-through

This is a highly practical workshop focused on what to do, what to say, and when to intervene.

Practical Tools You Can Use Immediately

You will receive:

Distress Cycle diagram
Mindfulness of the Dot exercise
Emotion model handouts
Distress tolerance skills list
Emotion regulation teaching tools
Session structure guide
Scripts and teaching language
Worksheets and client handouts

This is not just theory — this is a toolkit.

“Great workshop with knowledgeable and engaging facilitators. Able to learn DBT skills and how to adapt them to different presentations, work settings and client groups. Very practical and applicable.”

– Harsha

“Jess and Dr Al are great trainers. Their experience and real-world practical knowledge come through. They make the content real and applied. I learnt plenty!”

– Kara

“Fantastic program for people who are new to DBT or looking to sharpen their skills. Jess and Al were able to effectively bridge the gap between learning the theory and how to translate it appropriately into practice.”

– Jay

Is this a DBT workshop?
This workshop is DBT-informed, but it will fill the gaps of traditional DBT as we offer additional Psych Collective skills.
Is this workshop suitable for beginners?
Yes! This workshop is designed for both beginners and experienced clinicians looking to enhance their knowledges of skills to offer clients who frequently present with distress and emotional dysregulation.
Will there be practical demonstrations?
Absolutely. The workshop includes live demonstrations and opportunities for participants to practise skills in a supportive environment.

Does this workshop cover working with clients with complex trauma?
Yes. A key focus of this workshop is teaching how to use distress and emotional regulation skills as preparation for trauma work.
How is this workshop different to the DBT and Beyond Workshop?
This one-day workshop is an abridged version of our DBT and Beyond workshop. Designed for clinicians who only to focus their skills development on distress, mindfulness and emotion regulation.

The DBT and Beyond two-day is designed for clinicians who only want to focus their skills development on distress, mindfulness, and emotion regulation.

The DBT and Beyond workshop will include discussions about the standard DBT framework and how to apply this protocol in a group or individual setting. It will also cover the Interpersonal Effectivenss module and some classic DBT acronyms. Designed for clinicians who only focus their skills development on distress, mindfulness, and emotion regulation.

Working with Distressed Clients Workshop