Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, or DBT, is a type of talking therapy. It is designed for the specific needs of people who experience very strong emotions. Project Youth will be working with St. George CAMHS and Sutherland CAMHS to provide support to “young people who meet the threshold for CAMHS but wouldn’t engage in traditional therapy”.
The DBT program that we’re partnering on is going to be called Emotion Skills Group, instead of DBT, because it is only going to focus on the practical modules of DBT – Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance and Emotional Regulation modules - and be focused on just the young person. DBT at CAMHS usually involves parents, but our program will just be with young people. The reason DBT usually involves parents is because young people’s difficulties are often systemic (and larger than themselves). We've decided to just work with young people so they can have the opportunity to speak without their parents around.
The traditional DBT that CAMHS uses has 5 modules:
The end goal of the program is to build up a repertoire of skills and resources for young men to use when they need to regulate their emotions. There is also an opportunity for the participants in the program to seamlessly enter into Project Youth's other programs that could offer additional support if they needed it. In a way, this DBT program will be a soft entry point and will allow young people to meet with Project Youth staff in a comfortable and safe setting. It also gives our staff a chance to talk with young people that we otherwise might not have a chance to speak with and provide support to.
We are certainly looking forward to trying this program out and seeing the benefits that it will bring. As the program wraps up, we will look to provide an update on how it went!
Project Youth acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land on which we work. We acknowledge that this always was and always will be Aboriginal land and we pay our respects to Elders past, present & future.
All Rights Reserved | Project Youth Incorporated. Site by Fruitful Creative