Family DBT Bootcamp

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills teach people how to manage our emotions, relationships, and distress in effective and meaningful ways.  All people experience intense ups and downs of emotions and in relationships during adolescence. Learning these skills at this time of life can have an enormous impact on a person because they will be armed with healthy coping mechanisms from an early age, preventing the difficulties associated with long-term use of unhealthy ways of coping. Although it is often the case that adolescents present with the most intense symptoms in a family, it is important that parents also learn DBT skills both for their own benefit and to support their teen in implementing new coping mechanisms.


This class is designed to help teens and their parents cope with any of the following:

  • Emotional Instability

  • A Pattern of Unstable Relationships 

  • Chronic Feelings of Emptiness 

  • Strong Reactivity to Stress 

  • Difficulty Controlling and Letting Go of Emotions 

  • Intense Fear of Abandonment 

  • Self Esteem Issues

  • Mood-Driven and Impulsive Behaviors

  • Depression, Anxiety, Trauma and Grief Issues 

  • Substance Use

  • Eating Disordered Behavior

  • Other Forms of Self-Harm

While these skills are an invaluable part of building a life with less suffering, these psycho-educational classes are not a replacement for therapy. Therefore it is strongly recommend that participants be involved in concurrent outpatient counseling.

About Classes

Bootcamps through Northampton Center for DBT are designed specifically for one family at a time. This personalization means that we can work together to create the program that is going to be a perfect fit for you. In this program we meet for an intake appointment where I get a sense of what your teen and family are struggling with. Then I create a curriculum including Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotion Regulation and Interpersonal Effectiveness, to address the needs you identified in that meeting. Typically these programs involve between 5 and 10 classes for up to five family members, but it is my goal to be as flexible as possible to make the class exactly what you need. Classes are held in person in downtown Northampton on Tuesdays from 6-8.

Each class begins with a mindfulness exercise, a review of the previous week’s lesson and introduction of new material.  Homework is assigned to help families practice and reinforce the skills between classes. With your permission, your individual and/or family therapist would receive an email from the skills trainer weekly, identifying what skills were taught and what homework was assigned so that you might also get direct support from your therapist while learning these skills. 


Benefits of DBT 

DBT is an evidence-based method that has been proven to help individuals make positive and long term behavioral changes by replacing ineffective coping strategies with DBT skills. Goals of DBT include replacing destructive behaviors with healthier means of coping, increasing and enhancing emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness and mindfulness skills to create a life worth living.  

About Each Skill Set

Mindfulness Skills focus on the quality of our awareness and presence in life.  Mindfulness helps train us to decrease self-defeating thoughts and prolonged worries about the future as well as depressive thoughts about the past. 

Emotion Regulation Skills help us to identify and label current emotions, identify obstacles to changing emotions, reduce emotional reactivity, decrease emotional intensity and accumulate more positive emotions.

Distress Tolerance Skills concentrate on accepting the current reality and finding ways to survive and tolerate the moment without making things worse.  While all other modules focus on building a life worth living, distress tolerance skills teach us how to avoid tearing apart our life. 

Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills teach us to better identify and more effectively ask for what we need, set limits while enhancing relationships and resolve interpersonal conflict. 

Adolescent Pricing and Payment Information

Families can reach out at any time to set up and Intake Appointment for the Bootcamp program.  Kristen Joyce will set up that appointment around the next possible Bootcamp start date. Payment for the Intake session is required at the time of the session. Payment for your program is not required until the program start date and is due in full at that time.

  • Screening Interview and Curriculum Development - $400.00 (one 75 minute meeting and follow up communication to develop the ideal program)

  • Classes - $375 (2 hours each, in person. The number of classes is dependent upon each family’s need)

To Learn More About Enrollment

For more information or to apply for enrollment, please contact Kristen Joyce.