Regulating Emotion the DBT Way
Training at a Glance
Who This Course is For - For DBT and other therapists working with clients who have dysregulated emotions
Dates for This Training - November 2–3, 2026
Early Bird Rate $525 — ends September 28, 2026 | Standard Rate $575
Course Specifics - LiveRemoteInstructor-Led
Upcoming Dates
Pricing
Trainers

Gwen Abney-Cunningham, LMSW *
Gwen Abney-Cunningham, LMSW, is currently the Director of Faculty Relations at Behavioral Tech. In this role she ensures that those providing training and consulting on behalf of BTECH do so with the most current information available and employ the most effective methods in their endeavors, Gwen also provides training and consultation to mental health professionals in empirically supported behavioral treatments. She facilitates and/or co facilitates workshops teaching Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to various audiences across the world, including state and county mental health systems.
Prior to coming to Behavioral Tech full time, she was employed at a community mental health agency for 32 years, in many roles, including DBT Services Supervisor, Outpatient Services Director, and most recently as Evidenced Based Treatment Director. Gwen received her bachelor’s degree from Hope College and her MSW from Grand Valley State University. She has 34 years of professional experience and is a member of one of the first teams in the U.S. to apply DBT within an ACT program. Gwen is intensively trained in DBT and an experienced workshop leader at state, national, and international conferences. Gwen continues to work as a DBT therapist because it is effective and the hope it brings to clients and their families. As a BTECH Trainer and consultant, she is also able to assist many mental health providers in learning the treatment to assist in helping many individuals.
Gwen’s experience in DBT includes individual and skills training for adults, adolescents and families and providing DBT supervision to clinicians. In addition, she has assisted in the development and implementation of DBT on ACT teams and in outpatient settings. Gwen has been involved with the large-scale implementations of DBT in Michigan for Community Mental Health settings. She has been a Behavioral Tech trainer for 20 plus years.
Gwen is currently serving on the curriculum development team and Behavioral Tech Trainer Advisory Committee. She has also served on the Behavioral Tech Implementation Science Workgroup.
More About This Training
- Full Training Description
- Learning Objectives
- Prerequisites
- CE/CME Information
- Study Resources
- Technical Requirements
Purpose: This training addresses the moment-by-moment steps involved in coaching the client to regulate an emotion.
Content: This training will cover tips and strategies for managing common pitfalls in up-regulating or down-regulating each emotion to fit the facts. Participants will be shown how to troubleshoot to ensure the client has genuinely grasped the skill.
Length & Schedule: This course consists of 8 modules for a total of 11 instructor-led hours, which is delivered over 2 days.
For Whom: This course is intended for DBT and other therapists working with clients who have dysregulated emotions. This training is intended for mental health professionals who work in a therapeutic role and who would like to learn more about coaching emotion regulation. No prerequisites are needed to join this course, but it is advisable to have some previous training in DBT.
Core Description:
The role of strengthening and generalizing emotion regulation skills falls to the individual therapist. Clients may have read about emotion regulation or learned the skills in DBT skills training groups but still tend to over-rely on distraction or distress tolerance when these skills are called for in everyday life. In this workshop, participants will learn the moment-by-moment steps involved in coaching the client to regulate an emotion. The trainer will share some top tips on managing the common pitfalls in upregulating or downregulating each emotion to fit the facts. Participants will be shown how to troubleshoot to ensure the client has genuinely grasped the skill.
Learning Objectives:
Following this training, participants will be able to:
- Describe what is meant by “dialectical”.
- Explain why emotions get dysregulated.
- List emotion signatures and why we use them.
- Outline the steps in emotion regulation.
- Explain how to hone in on the context in a chain analysis.
- Describe the steps in behavioral chain analysis.
- Demonstrate how to separate out emotions.
- Describe how to regulate secondary emotions.
- Describe common errors in behavioral chain analyses (BCA).
- Describe when anger matches the facts.
- Explain signature features and opposite actions for anger.
- List special issues involved in regulating anger.
- Describe when guilt matches the facts.
- Describe signature features and opposite actions for guilt.
- Explain special issues for regulating guilt.
- Explain what is meant by validation.
- Describe effects of invalidation.
- Demonstrate how to avoid insufficient or superficial validation.
- Describe situations where shame matches the facts.
- Explain signature features and opposite actions for shame.
- List special issues related to regulating shame.
- Explain when disgust matches the facts.
- Describe signature features and opposite actions for disgust.
- List special issues for regulating disgust.
- Describe when sadness matches the facts.
- Explain signature features and opposite actions for sadness.
- List Special issues when regulating sadness.
- Demonstrate the steps in regulating sadness.
- Describe when fear matches the facts.
- Explain Signature features and opposite actions for fear.
- List special issues regulating fear.
- Describe when envy and jealousy match the facts.
- Explain opposite actions for jealousy and envy.
- List special issues for regulating jealousy and envy.
- Describe obstacles to problem-solving.
- Explain solutions for the valid part of emotions.
- Demonstrate practical problem solving.
- Summarize steps in emotion regulation.
Preparation & Training Requirements:
No prerequisites are needed to join this course, but it is advisable to have some previous training in DBT.
This offering meets the requirements for the following hours by discipline. Licensing and continuing education requirements vary by state. Please contact your state’s regulatory authority to verify if this course meets your licensing or continuing education requirements. Inquiries regarding CE for other disciplines not listed may be directed to Behavioral Tech via email ([email protected]).
CE NOTE: Behavioral Tech calculates the continuing education credits for this training by the start time and end time. 100 percent attendance is required, as is signing IN and OUT each morning and afternoon, to receive CE credits. Only participants with 100% attendance, and who have completed the Post-Event Evaluation and passed their Final Exam with a score of 75% or higher will receive credit. Behavioral Tech cannot offer partial credit. Please remember to sign in and sign out each day to document your attendance. Continuing Education documentation will be emailed to you 4-6 weeks after the last day of training.
Psychologists
Behavioral Tech is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. Behavioral Tech maintains responsibility for the program and its content. This activity is being jointly provided by Behavioral Tech Institute and British Isles DBT Training. Behavioral Tech will email you a letter documenting your attendance after the successful completion of the program and homework. The number of hours Behavioral Tech has allocated for this activity = 11.
Psychologists – New York
Behavioral Tech is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists, #PSY-0063. Behavioral Tech will email a certificate of attendance upon 100% completion of this activity. The total contact hour allocated for this activity = 11.
Social Workers- Washington
Behavioral Tech will apply to the NASW, Washington State Chapter, Provider Number 1975-166, to offer continuing education for Certified Social Workers. Behavioral Tech will email a certificate of attendance upon 100% completion of this activity. The hours of CE allocated for this activity = 11.
Social Workers – New York
Behavioral Tech is approved by recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers, #0040. Behavioral Tech will email a letter documenting attendance to participants with 100% completion of the program and homework. The hours allocated for this activity = 11.
General CE/CME Disclosures and Policies
Conflict of interest definition: A conflict of interest may be considered to exist if a continuing education course faculty is affiliated with, or has any significant financial interest, in any organization(s) that may have a direct interest in the subject matter of the presentation or may be co-sponsoring or offering financial support to the course. Situations involving a potential conflict of interest are not inherently bad or wrong, but in accordance with standards for continuing medical education we would like you to be aware of the affiliation/financial interest of your instructors.
Faculty Disclaimer: When an unlabelled use of a commercial product, or an investigative use not yet approved for any purpose is discussed during an educational activity, we shall require the speaker to disclose that the product is not labeled for the use under discussion or that the product is still investigative.
Notice of requirements for successful completion: For all trainings (both in-person and remote), participants must attend 100% of the training and complete the Final Evaluation to receive a certificate of successful completion. This includes signing in and out each day/session of the event. For remote, Instructor-led online training, participants have to pass the Post Assessment(s) with a score of 75% or higher.
Commercial support or sponsorship: There is no commercial company support for this CME/CE event.
Noncommercial Sponsor Support: There is no noncommercial sponsor support for this CME/CE activity.
Non-Endorsement of Products: The Behavioral Tech approval status refers only to continuing education activities and does not imply that there is real or implied endorsement of any product, service, or company referred to in this activity nor of any company subsidizing costs related to the activity.
Off-Label Product Use: This CME/CE activity does not include any unannounced information about off-label use of a product for a purpose other than that for which it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Disclosure of Relevant Financial Relationships: Faculty members are required to disclose all conflicts of interest and any relevant financial relationships that may affect the training content. Unless specified on Behavioral Tech’s website or on other printed materials/media, none of the individuals in a position to control the content of this CE/CME activity (including planners, editors, CE/CME Review Committee members, faculty presenters, moderators/facilitators, reviewers, etc.) have any relevant financial relationships to disclose.
CE Reprint Policy: For missing/lost CE documentation, an administrative fee of $50 is required for all CE/CME activities after 2017. For CE reprints prior to 2017, please refer to the website or contact [email protected].
Reading for Regulating Emotion the DBT way:
Dunkley, C. (2021). Regulating emotion the DBT way: A therapist’s guide to Opposite Action. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
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- Our Online Portal (powered by Thinkific) will be used to host the live Zoom sessions and share supplemental materials.
- Participants are responsible for printing out their materials in the online portal.
- All Live-Remote Trainings require each participant to have:
- A high-speed Internet Service Connection with a minimum speed of 5Mbps. Test your internet speed.
- The most recent version of any of the following web-browsers: Google Chrome, Firefox , Safari , Microsoft Edge (Please note Internet Explorer will not be supported)
- Web-browser configurations must have Javascript enabled and popup blockers disabled.
- The following software applications: Zoom, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, A PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, or the ability to view PDFs in a web-browser. To test your internet connection, camera, and microphone for Zoom, you can use Zoom’s testing application.
- No firewall restrictions. If a firewall is installed, please be aware that may interfere with the training content and materials, as it may be blocked. Please include the following 3rd party services to trusted sites list(s):
- Thinkific Learning Management System: https://behavioraltech.thinkific.com/
- SurveyMonkey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/
- Zoom: https://zoom.us/
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