DBT Skills Group for Borderline Personality Disorder

Group Type: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills Group

Who Is The Group For?

• Diagnosed or Self-Identified
  • For anyone formally diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, showing traits of BPD, or suspecting they may relate to its experiences — diagnosis is not required to join.
• Wanting to Learn DBT Skills
  • If you want to build practical tools from Dialectical Behavior Therapy — to manage emotions, relationships, and daily life more effectively.
• In or Outside Individual Therapy
  • You may already be in therapy or not — this group complements both paths by offering a structured, skills-focused environment.
• Seeking Shared Understanding
  • If you’d like to connect with others who “get it,” share lived experiences, and learn coping skills in a validating, therapist-led setting.

Glimpse of the Session:

• Session 1-2: Understanding BPD, Debunking Myths
  • Session 1: Understanding BPD & Debunking Myths
    • Purpose: To normalise lived experiences, reduce stigma, and establish a compassionate, non-judgemental understanding of BPD while creating emotional safety within the group.
    • Core Content:
      • Understanding BPD through emotional sensitivity, relational pain, and identity struggles
      • The Biosocial Model explained in accessible, non-pathologizing language
      • Common myths surrounding BPD and their harmful impact on self-image and treatment
      • Reframing BPD as an emotional regulation difficulty, not a character flaw
      • Establishing group safety: norms, confidentiality, respect, boundaries, and expectations
    • Experiential:
      • Reflective writing and sharing: “What have I been told about myself that I am now unlearning?”
    • Actionable Takeaway:
      • Begin reframing self-criticism by reminding yourself: “My reactions are learned survival responses, not personal flaws.”
  • Session 2: Understanding DBT & Schema Modes
    • Purpose: To provide participants with a clear internal map of their emotional world and coping system.
    • Core Content:
      • What DBT is and why it is effective for emotional regulation and relationships
      • Overview of the four DBT skill modules
      • Introduction to Schema Therapy and the role of early emotional experiences
      • Understanding schemas and their impact on beliefs, feelings, and behaviour
      • Introduction to key Schema Modes:
        • Vulnerable Child
        • Angry Child
        • Detached Protector
        • Punitive Parent
        • Healthy Adult
    • Experiential:
      • Gentle awareness exercise: noticing which modes appear in everyday situations
    • Actionable Takeaway:
      • Practise a daily check-in by noticing which inner mode is active and what it needs.
• Sessions 3-4: Maladaptive Coping & Distress Tolerance & Unmet Emotional Needs & Emotion Regulation
  • Session 3: Maladaptive Coping & Distress Tolerance
    • Purpose: To understand survival strategies developed in response to emotional pain and to build safer, stabilising alternatives.
    • Core Content:
      • What maladaptive coping is and why it develops
      • Linking coping patterns with different Schema Modes
      • Schema Mode Mapping:
        • What I feel → Which mode activates → How I cope
      • Distress Tolerance skills:
        • Self-soothing using the five senses
        • STOP skill
        • TIPP
        • ACCEPTS
    • Experiential:
      • Personal trigger mapping and skill application practice
    • Actionable Takeaway:
      • Use at least one distress-tolerance skill when emotional intensity rises this week.
  • Session 4: Unmet Emotional Needs & Emotion Regulation
    • Purpose: To explore the roots of emotional intensity and strengthen emotional balance.
    • Core Content:
      • Core emotional needs: safety, connection, validation, autonomy, care
      • How unmet needs amplify emotional distress
      • Understanding primary and secondary emotions
      • Emotion regulation skills:
        • Identifying emotions accurately
        • Naming emotional triggers
        • Opposite Action
        • Building emotional stability through daily practices
    • Experiential:
      • Mapping personal emotional needs and current sources of support
    • Actionable Takeaway:
      • When emotions feel overwhelming, pause and identify the unmet emotional need beneath them.
• Sessions 5-6: Holding Space for Vulnerability & Self-Conscious Emotions
  • Session 5: Holding Space for Vulnerability & Self-Conscious Emotions
    • Purpose: To work gently with shame, guilt, abandonment fears, and emotional exposure.
    • Core Content:
      • Understanding vulnerability in emotional and relational contexts
      • Shame and guilt as self-conscious, secondary emotions
      • The role of the Punitive Parent and Vulnerable Child
      • Developing compassionate self-talk through the Healthy Adult
      • Learning to remain present with painful emotions rather than escaping or suppressing them
    • Experiential:
      • Guided self-compassion and emotional safety practice
    • Actionable Takeaway:
      • Respond to moments of shame or self-criticism with compassionate, Healthy-Adult self-talk.
  • Session 6: Interpersonal Effectiveness (Through Case Examples)
    • Purpose: To strengthen communication, boundaries, and relational confidence.
    • Core Content:
      • Understanding relationship needs: objectives, connection, self-respect
      • DBT interpersonal effectiveness skills:
        • DEAR MAN
        • GIVE
        • FAST
      • Applying skills to real-life relational challenges
      • Expressing needs without escalation or withdrawal
    • Experiential:
      • Role-play and communication script practice
    • Actionable Takeaway:
      • Practise one DBT communication skill in a real-life interaction.
• Sessions 7-8: Nurturing Relationships & Working Through Defences
  • Session 7: Nurturing Relationships & Working Through Defences
    • Purpose: To heal relational patterns and soften emotional defences.
    • Core Content:
      • Characteristics of healthy relationships and realistic expectations
      • Identifying unhealthy cycles and attachment patterns
      • Understanding emotional defences: withdrawal, anger, people-pleasing, splitting
      • Working through black-and-white thinking
      • Strengthening the Healthy Adult in relationships
    • Experiential:
      • Reflective exploration: “What pattern do I want to change in my relationships?”
    • Actionable Takeaway:
      • Notice one relationship pattern this week and choose a healthier response.
  • Session 8: Self-Soothing, Grounding & Mindfulness Integration
    • Purpose: To consolidate learning and support emotional continuity after group completion.
    • Core Content:
      • Mindfulness tools for emotional regulation
      • Body-based grounding techniques
      • Building a personalised self-soothing toolkit
      • Integrating DBT and Schema skills into daily life
      • Group reflection and closure
    • Experiential:
      • Closing grounding practice and future-oriented reflection
    • Actionable Takeaway:
      • Use one grounding or self-soothing practice daily to support emotional stability.