Hi @PeppiPatty 

We are currently doing Emotion Regulation. We do 2 hours per week in a group of 8 with a facilitator who is a psychologist. Each week is broken into 2 one hour sessions - the first hour is discussing the skills we looked at the week before and how we have gone with the homework from that. The 2nd hour is looking at a new skill. Each module is 8 weeks long. The first modeul I did was Distress Tolerance - I didn't take too much in as I was very uncomfortable in the group - that has eased a lot with time and as I have got to know the people in the group more. The connections you make and being able to talk in the group is a major part of DBT - it is just as important as learning the skills themselves.

There are 4 modules overall (not sure what the next one will be but it will be either Core Mindfulness or Interpersonal Effectiveness) - it is recommended that we do each module twice - this is because it often takes a while for people to get the grasp of all the information presented in such a small space of time.

Each week we also have a diary card to fill in which shows how our emotions have been each day, allow us to write down anything that has happened on each of those days and we record things like the level of SI we have had, whether we have taken our meds as prescribed, SH etc. and a section to record if we have used any of the skills we have been taught. At the end of each module we look at our diary cards to see patterns and how we have been using our skills.

We each have a pdoc appointment after the DBT session to go through our diary cards and discuss any issues that the DBT sessions brought up for us.

I hope that is a bit more of an overview for you - it is quite intense and at times can be both draining and triggering. It is a very long day for me as there is a 2 hour break between DBT and my pdoc appointment - I usually come home for an hour!