Date course created: June 2025
For clinicians working with clients whose trauma symptoms persist, expanding the therapeutic toolkit is a natural next step. While many know DBT for Borderline Personality Disorder, its core skills, when applied with precision and flexibility, can be exceptionally effective in the treatment of PTSD and complex trauma.
In this in-depth 5.75 CE training, Dr. Emily Wharton demonstrates how to move beyond rigid protocols and strategically deploy DBT skills. The course focuses on helping clients who feel stuck by offering them practical tools to manage overwhelming emotions and reconnect with their lives.
This program builds upon your clinical skills by providing a nuanced framework for trauma treatment. You will learn to develop a flexible, responsive approach that can be tailored to individual client needs, moving beyond a one-size-fits-all model. The training delves into specific techniques for targeting key trauma symptoms, such as Anti-Dissociation skills and the incorporation of skills-assisted exposure to trauma memories. Dr. Wharton also re-examines the four core DBT modules [Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness, and Distress Tolerance] through a practical, trauma-focused lens, providing concrete strategies that build clinical confidence for even the most challenging cases.
This course is for any professional seeking to unlock the full potential of DBT as a powerful tool for healing and to offer renewed hope to their clients!
**This is a 5.75-CE noninteractive, self-paced online video course delivered in home study format via an industry-standard online learning platform**
Agenda:
00:00 – 00:56: Introduction, Integrating DBT with Trauma Work, Compassion in Healing, Socratic Questioning
00:56 – 01:49: Effectiveness of Written Exposure Therapy, Expanding Perspectives, Client Choice
01:49 – 02:30: Acceptance and Growth, Skills Assisted Exposure, Understanding Adaptive Dissociation
02:30 – 03:27: Uses of Scents, Movement / Body Awareness, The Challenge of Exposure Therapy, Integrating ACT
03:27 – 04:08: Post-Traumatic Growth and Resilience, The Risks of Hypervigilance, Avoidance and Exposure
04:08 – 05:06: In Vivo Exposure, Urgent Emotion Surfing, Navigating Moral Injury and Guilt
05:06 – 05:47: Building Trust, Role of Shame, Supporting Your Inner Child, Validation and Problem Solving
Objectives:
This training will provide participants clinical knowledge and tools to:
a). After completing this training, participants will be able to describe the core tenets, principles, and underlying theory of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for PTSD.
b). After completing this training, participants will be able to explain how the DBT for PTSD model fits the presentation of PTSD and how it differs from classical DBT.
c). After completing this training, participants will be able to define anti-dissociation skills and their use in DBT for PTSD.
d). After completing this training, participants will be able to identify how to create trauma sequences to address multiple traumatic events in clients’ history.
e). After completing this training, participants will be able to explain how to engage clients in skills-assisted in vivo exposures.
f). After completing this training, participants will be able to demonstrate how to engage clients in skills-assisted in-session exposure to the trauma memory.
Target Audience:
The target audience for this event includes psychologists, social workers, counselors, MFT’s, psychiatrists and other clinical mental health professionals.
Instructional Level: Intermediate
Instructor(s): Emily Wharton, PsyD
Material Author(s): Emily Wharton, PsyD
For additional information about this course, the instructors, or the material authors, please contact Content Assistance at content@onlinececredits.com.
Course Materials & Delivery Method:
- Course Materials – The course is composed of a recorded presentation and written materials (e.g. a slide deck and/or other worksheets, manuals, or handouts as provided by the instructor). The slide deck and any additional worksheets or handouts (as provided by the instructor) are made available inside the Lesson module after a course is purchased.
- Delivery Method – This course is a recorded asynchronous, self-paced webinar training, and there is no access time limit or due date to complete it once enrolled. The enrolled learner will stream the recorded presentation and view the materials from their internet connected device via an industry-standard online learning platform.
CE Approvals:
Online CE Credits has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6795. Programs that do not quality for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Online CE Credits is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
Mind Works Professional Education, Inc. DBA Online CE Credits, #1974, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: July 23, 2024 – July 23, 2025. Social workers completing this course receive 5.75 clinical continuing education credits.
Other Helpful Information:
- Refund & Cancellation Policy – You may review this policy at any time by clicking here.
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- Course Completion Requirements – 1.) View the entire Lesson module (accessible from the main course page), to include the embedded and/or linked presentation video(s), slide deck, additional materials, and/or links to any shared video clip(s) that may have been edited from the presentation video(s) to comply with copyright laws. 2.) Click into the Quiz module accessible from either the main course page or the Lesson page and complete the Quiz with an 80% or better pass rate. 3.) Complete the course evaluation – you’ll be sent to the evaluation automatically once you successfully pass the Quiz.
- Posttest Requirements – You must answer 80% or more of the Quiz questions correctly to pass. If you fail to pass the first time, you may attempt the quiz again until you are able to pass with a score of 80% or better. Quizzes are graded instantly and automatically by the learning management system once your attempt is submitted.
- Certificate of Completion – Certificates of completion are automatically generated – downloadable from your Dashboard and emailed to you – once you view the Lesson materials and complete the Quiz and the course evaluation.
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