What’s the Difference Between DBT Skills Training and Individual DBT Therapy?

Evidence-informed information from SaskADHD and STG Health Services Inc.

Educational notice: This article provides general information and is not a diagnosis, emergency service or substitute for individualized medical, psychological or mental-health care.

QUESTIONS WE HEAR

The short answer: DBT skills training teaches and practises the core DBT skills. Individual DBT therapy applies the treatment model to your specific behavioural targets, patterns, barriers, and real-life situations. Some people need one; some need both.

The two services are often confused because both use DBT language and both may discuss mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.

But they do different jobs.

A DBT skills group is not simply individual therapy with several people in the room. And individual DBT is not just private tutoring on the worksheets.

What happens in DBT skills training?

Skills training is structured learning. Participants are taught specific strategies, practise them between sessions, review how the practice went, and troubleshoot where the skill did or did not work.

The standard skills curriculum is organized around four broad areas:

Mindfulness: noticing what is happening and participating more effectively in the present moment
Distress tolerance: getting through painful situations without making them worse
Emotion regulation: understanding emotions, reducing vulnerability, and changing ineffective emotional responses
Interpersonal effectiveness: asking, saying no, maintaining relationships, validating, negotiating, and protecting self-respect

The group is therefore closer to a structured class with clinical coaching than to an open process group.

What happens in individual DBT therapy?

Individual DBT is organized around the person’s treatment targets. The therapist looks at what happened during the week, which behaviours matter most, what interfered with effective action, and what needs to change next.

This may include diary-card review, behaviour chain analysis, solution analysis, rehearsal, problem-solving, exposure-based work when appropriate, commitment strategies, and detailed application of skills to specific situations.

The therapist is not simply asking, “How was your week?” The session has priorities.

STG Health Clinical Perspective

A useful way to think about the difference is: skills training builds the toolbox; individual DBT studies when, where, and why the tools stop being available in your actual life.

Why do some people need both?

In standard comprehensive DBT, skills training and individual therapy are both part of the treatment. They support different functions.

The group teaches a broad repertoire. Individual therapy helps the person apply that repertoire to the behaviours with the highest clinical priority.

For someone with recurrent high-risk behaviour, severe therapy-interfering patterns, or major quality-of-life instability, skills training alone may leave too much of the treatment problem unaddressed.

For someone who is safe, stable, and primarily wants to strengthen coping skills, a full comprehensive program may be more treatment than is necessary.

What does a diary card have to do with individual DBT?

Diary cards help turn a week of emotional and behavioural experience into usable treatment information. Instead of relying only on whichever event feels most urgent on the day of therapy, the therapist and client can look at patterns across the week.

That may include urges, target behaviours, emotional intensity, skill use, sleep or other vulnerability factors, and progress toward treatment goals.

DBT Saskatchewan uses the STG Diary Card System to support structured tracking when it is clinically appropriate.

The Toolbox-versus-Troubleshooting Test

If you are trying to decide which service fits, ask:

Do I mainly need to learn or relearn DBT skills? Skills training may be the better starting point.
Do I already know many skills but repeatedly fail to use them in the situations that matter most? Individual work may be more useful.
Are high-risk or severe treatment-interfering behaviours active? A more comprehensive treatment structure may be needed.
Do I need help applying skills to one specific pattern? Individual DBT may provide more precision.

What if I already completed a DBT group?

Completing a skills group does not mean you should never repeat the skills. Standard DBT itself is built around repetition because learning a skill once and accessing it under pressure are not the same thing.

A refresher can be useful when your skill range has narrowed, when you are using the same two or three strategies for everything, or when your life has changed and the old practice examples no longer match your current stressors.

DBT Saskatchewan also offers a DBT Skills Refresher for adults who already have a foundation in core DBT skills.

Questions people also ask

Do I have to share personal details in a DBT skills group?

DBT skills groups are structured learning environments. Participation and practice are expected, but they are not designed around forced disclosure of personal trauma or private history.

Can individual DBT teach skills too?

Yes. Individual therapists may review or teach skills when needed. The distinction is that individual therapy is organized around your treatment targets rather than delivering the full skills curriculum as a class.

Is skills training enough for BPD?

Sometimes, but not always. For people with significant risk, recurrent self-harm, severe therapy interference, or major instability, stand-alone skills training may not provide enough structure.

Can I do skills training and individual therapy with different providers?

Sometimes this is possible, but coordination matters. Providers should be clear about roles, treatment targets, safety planning, and how information will be shared when appropriate and consented to.

What can I do next?

Compare DBT Skills Training and DBT Individual Therapy. You do not need to choose perfectly before intake; the point of intake is to help determine the most appropriate starting level.

Start DBT Intake