DBT-Sleep: Foundational
- Reduce your DBT client's risk of self-harm & suicide by competently assessing & treating their (extremely common) struggles with sleep disruption & insomnia with this 100% online certification course.
- Free 60-minute group consultation each week with Dr. Brian Curtis, PhD, DBSM through Zoom (a $300/month value!)
- Earn 26.0 Continuing Education (CE) hours (psychologists, social workers, licensed professional counselors).
- Lifetime access to the DBT-Sleep: Foundational course curriculum.
- Transform your DBT Practice as a Certified DBT-Sleep: Foundational Clinician
Sleep Disruption in DBT: Research indicates ~50% of your DBT clients with BPD, ~70% of your DBT clients with PTSD, & ~85% of your DBT clients with major depression are currently struggling with insomnia.
Sleep & Suicide: Insomnia is a well-established risk factor for non-suicidal self-injury, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, & suicide death, with ~75% of individuals who attempted suicide reporting difficulty falling asleep & ~70% reporting difficulty staying asleep.
Saving Lives by Treating Sleep in DBT: Treating insomnia in individuals reporting suicidal ideation (SI) has been shown to reduce SI by 25% post-treatment & 19% at 1-year follow up with an 82% reduction in new-onset SI.
Treating Sleep is Effective in DBT Populations: Treating insomnia not only reduces suicide risk, but also improves PTSD severity, substance use, anxiety, depression, & decreases time spent in bipolar episodes, resulting in recommendations to integrate the assessment & treatment of sleep disruption in DBT as standard of care.
Overcoming Barriers: Although DBT is one of the few evidence-based treatments to specifically highlight sleep disruption as a vulnerability factor for emotion dysregulation (e.g., the optional one-page sleep hygiene & nightmare protocol handouts), there is no protocol in DBT for routine assessment, daily monitoring, or treatment of sleep disruption. DBT-Sleep: Foundational overcomes these barriers by offering the same step-by-step process Dr. Curtis uses in his clinical practice to assess & treat sleep disruption & insomnia in DBT.
Course Objectives
- Describe the prevalence and consequences of sleep disruptions in Dialectical Behavior Therapy patient populations.
- Explain the functions of sleep, circadian and homeostatic processes regulating sleep, and how this knowledge informs clinical assessment and treatment.
- Describe diagnostic criteria and utilize standard assessment measures for clinically relevant sleep-wake disorders.
- Explain how to conduct a sleep-focused intake interview including standardized assessment measures in sleep medicine.
- Discuss and practice implementing the central components of CBT-I, MBT-I, and ACT-I while integrating the use of core DBT skills.
- Apply knowledge to generate a case conceptualization, individualized treatment plan, and when referral to a sleep specialist may be warranted.
Meet Your Course Instructor:
Brian Curtis, PhD, DBSM
Education
Doctorate (PhD) in clinical psychology, Board certified in Behavioral Sleep Medicine (DBSM), Master’s (MS) in neuroscience under the mentorship of Nobel Prize winning geneticist Mario Capecchi, PhD.
Clinical Experience
Advanced training and certification in evidence-based assessment and treatment of borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic insomnia, and nightmare disorder.
Research
12 years of research experience and 12 peer-reviewed scientific publications in some of the world's top journals in neuroscience, psychology, and sleep medicine. Member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine.
DBT-Sleep
Dr. Curtis is one of only 218 clinicians in the world who is board certified in behavioral sleep medicine (DBSM) and the only DBSM specialist with advanced training and certification in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
What Your Fellow DBT Clinicians Are Saying ...
"This course goes beyond exceptional training and is an essential for any clinician who regularly utilizes DBT.
Many of my clients experienced sleep disruptions that were chronically underlying their problem behaviors and emotional pain, but which were not addressed given the severity and urgency of other issues in their lives.
This training was vital in helping both myself and my clients to deeply understand the driving factors for sleep disruptions and to gain the skills in regulating sleep while working within a DBT protocol.
This training will absolutely deepen your practice and quickly improve the lives of those you work with (and yourself)."
DBT Clinician at Perspective Behavioral Health
"Dr. Curtis has succeeded in combining the most effective psychotherapeutic modality, DBT, with the field of sleep medicine to successfully treat sleep disorders in people who struggle with extreme depression, PTSD, severe anxiety, and personality disorders.
In 24 years of practicing DBT, I have yet to find a clinician that is more adept at applying concise and cohesive measures to relieve disordered sleep issues. Notable is his nonjudgmental stance which increases patient compliance in a historically challenging field of treatment. He is my first line of defense in treating patients with sleep difficulties."
Atlanta DBT Center
"My Team and I were fortunate to have Dr. Brian Curtis do a didactic Lunch-and-Learn series on DBT-Sleep, spanning a month's time, for an audience of trainees brand new to DBT and working with disordered sleep, all the way to DBT-LBC Certified clinicians such as myself with 20 years of DBT practice.
Every single session was well organized, engaging, and thoughtfully curated, and I can't tell you how many notes I took! After every session, the Team would chat excitedly about how we were planning to use the knowledge and techniques learned immediately with our clients.
That is how well Brian set us up. Even after the first session, we walked away with tools to help our clients in tangible ways manage their wide range of sleep issues, and we felt confident in our ability to do so as a direct result of Brian's unique way of teaching and training. We have seen improvements in outcomes with our clients through application of what we learned, and also with ourselves!
As someone with decades of sleep issues of all types, the implementation of what I learned from Brian shifted what my own sleep experience was, and for the better beyond belief. I stand behind Brian and his work, and am forever grateful to have learned from him."
DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician™
"I took three of Dr. Curtis's live trainings in the fall of 2022. I can’t emphasize enough the amount of valuable information and tangible skills I gained from those trainings.
This has transformed the way I help my clients with sleep-related issues. Now I feel like I have some control over a problem that is so important for the population we serve.
If you have the chance to take Brian’s trainings, I would highly, HIGHLY recommend doing so for the benefit of both your clients and your practice."
DBT Clinician at T-K Ranch Equine Assisted Coaching
"I have attended several trainings by Dr. Curtis and have left each one a better clinician. He is bright, engaging, and clear as a presenter.
I not only felt like his training sharpened my conceptualization of the transactional relationship between sleep and mood, but I felt able to walk out of the training and implement new techniques in my sessions that day."
Behavioral Care Center of New Jersey, LLC
Course Curriculum
Welcome, DBT-Sleep: Foundational Clinicians
Module 1: Why Focus on Sleep as a DBT Clinician?
Module 2: Sleep-Focused Assessment in DBT
Module 3: Session 1: Aligning the Balloon and the Clock
Module 4: Session 2: Break the Switch. Make Pizza. Drop the Rope.
Module 5: Session 3: Lights and Temperatures and Beers, Oh My!
Module 6: Session 4: Letting the Lizard Relax
Module 7: Session 5: Exploring Sleep-Related Thoughts and Beliefs
Module 8: Session 6: Solving Problems, Being Flexible
Module 9: Session 7 and Beyond: Case Example
Module 10: DBT-Sleep: Foundational Summary
Congratulations on Completing DBT-Sleep: Foundational!
