Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a free self-guided online course designed to teach the core skills of DBT through a structured series of lessons, videos, and exercises. The course has been completed by over 5 million people in 87 countries, making it one of the most widely accessed DBT resources on the web. The course is built to work whether you are in ongoing therapy with a trained DBT provider, using it between sessions with your therapist, or learning the skills independently without a therapist. The page presenting the course is medically reviewed by a clinical psychology professional.

How the Course Works

The course contains approximately 40 lessons organized into four modules covering the four core skill areas of DBT. Each lesson follows the same structure throughout: a short video teaching component that takes roughly five minutes to complete, followed by an exercise with an accompanying worksheet that takes about ten minutes to finish. The recommended practice schedule is to repeat exercises that resonate with you several times each week as you integrate the skills into your daily life.

The mindfulness module forms the foundation of the entire course. These lessons teach you to observe your own thoughts and emotions without judgment and without trying to change them immediately. The module emphasizes balance and the dialectics of life, which is core to DBT philosophy. The site recommends starting here if you are beginning your DBT journey.

The distress tolerance module addresses acute crisis moments and intense emotional pain. These skills teach you to survive distress without using target behaviors (self-harm, substance use, or other destructive coping mechanisms). The lessons emphasize that distress can feel overwhelming and that these skills help you move through those moments. The module covers specific techniques designed to increase your confidence and resilience when facing difficulty.

The emotion regulation module tackles ongoing emotional management. The course describes many people as struggling with emotion dysregulation and offers these skills to reduce emotional vulnerability and stabilize emotions. These lessons teach you to manage existing emotions, change emotions that are not serving you, adjust the intensity of emotions you experience, and build positive emotional states over time.

The interpersonal effectiveness module addresses relationships, which the course describes as challenging to navigate. These skills are designed to help you get your needs met in relationships, maintain relationships that matter to you, and stand up for yourself when necessary. This module recognizes that managing relationships effectively is part of building a life worth living.

Each module contains approximately ten detailed lessons, and each lesson includes video instruction and a downloadable worksheet. The videos and worksheets make the course accessible to people with different learning styles. The course is designed so that you can work through it entirely on your own without a therapist, though many people use it as a companion to professional therapy.

What the Course Teaches About DBT

Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a structured therapy focused on teaching these four core skills to help you create a good life for yourself. You work on these skills through a series of lessons and then apply them to your own life. DBT is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which means it shares CBT's focus on changing unhelpful thought patterns. However, DBT goes further by adding mindfulness, acceptance, distress tolerance, and interpersonal skills to give you more tools for managing difficult situations.

The word "dialectical" refers to combining two seeming opposites, and DBT's core philosophy reflects this: it combines the idea of change with the idea of acceptance. Rather than only working to change what is not working, DBT teaches you to accept some things as they are while working to change other things.

DBT was originally developed by Marsha Linehan, a psychologist who created it to treat her own Borderline Personality Disorder. This origin story is significant because Linehan's own lived experience with BPD informed every element of the therapy. From that foundation, DBT's use has expanded far beyond BPD to address a wide range of conditions. The course lists specific applications: DBT helps people with anxiety and depression by increasing awareness of negative thought patterns and helping them focus on positive activities that maintain health. For substance abuse, DBT helps reduce cravings, avoid triggering situations, and find better ways to manage stress. For self-harm, DBT provides specific techniques to manage urges and avoid unhealthy behavior. For ADHD, the skills improve impulse control and develop organizational abilities. For BPD specifically, DBT helps moderate excessive emotions, increase tolerance for high stress, manage associated problem relationships, reduce self-harming behavior, and address impulsivity. For eating disorders, particularly bulimia and binge-eating, DBT develops distress tolerance and emotional regulation. For PTSD, DBT provides grounding techniques to reduce symptom severity and helps with processing traumatic events. For anger management, DBT teaches recognition of triggers and provides tools to reduce intense emotion without aggressive behavior.

Research and Effectiveness

The course states that DBT has become one of the most studied forms of therapy and has picked up popularity among therapists as evidence of its clinical effectiveness has continued to accumulate. There have been 15 significant trials of DBT to date. The evidence shows effectiveness in reducing self-harm, more treatment adherence, less time in treatment, fewer serious episodes, and patients have reported feeling better overall.

The benefits of DBT specifically include reduced emotional distress, improved interpersonal effectiveness, increased distress tolerance, better emotion regulation skills, enhanced mindfulness, reduced suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and greater sense of self-acceptance and self-compassion.

In a clinical setting with a trained DBT provider delivering both skills training groups and individual therapy sessions, learning all the skills typically takes six months. However, many people use this course to supplement ongoing therapy or to practice skills between sessions, and others use it as a self-directed learning tool. The foundation is the same regardless of setting: DBT is premised on the idea that many problems are based on skill deficits, and that by giving people better skills they can live happier and more productive lives.

What You Will Not Find Here

The course does not provide therapeutic guidance or crisis support. This is educational material, not a substitute for therapy with a qualified provider. The course offers no interaction with instructors, no personalized coaching, and no mental health advice tailored to your situation. There is no community forum or peer support feature within the course itself. The course is not monitored by a therapist, so you are working entirely at your own pace without accountability or check-ins.

The course does not publish pricing information because it is completely free. All 40+ lessons, all videos, and all worksheets are available at no cost to anyone who visits the site. There is no membership tier, no premium features, and no payment option. The site sustains itself through the use of affiliate links and advertising.

While the course covers DBT's four main skill modules comprehensively, it does not provide the full treatment package of formal DBT, which typically includes individual therapy sessions, skills group sessions, phone coaching, and therapist consultation teams. This self-guided course gives you the skill-building component but not the ongoing relational support that formal DBT provides.

Who This Course Fits Best

This course works well for people already in formal DBT therapy who want to review lessons, strengthen their practice of skills, or access worksheets to bring to their therapy sessions. It works for people between therapists who want to continue practicing skills they have learned. People seeking to understand DBT before committing to finding a formal provider can explore the course to see if this approach resonates with them. People in areas where formal DBT is unavailable can use this course as a self-directed practice tool.

Mental health professionals can use the course to learn the DBT framework or as a teaching resource for clients. People managing anxiety, depression, emotion dysregulation, relationship difficulties, or other conditions mentioned can use the course to develop targeted skills for their specific struggles.

This course is less suitable for people in acute crisis who need immediate support from a trained professional. It is not appropriate as a replacement for professional mental health treatment for people with suicidal ideation or active self-harm. The self-paced, self-directed structure requires motivation and discipline; someone who struggles with starting tasks or following through will need the external structure that formal therapy provides. People who learn best through interactive relationship with a therapist may find self-guided work isolating. The course is also not suitable as a first entry point for someone with no mental health literacy, as some concepts assume basic familiarity with mental health terminology and therapy concepts.