Skills for the Season: DBT Strategies for Family Time - Background Image
Live Event

DBT Solutions for Family Gatherings

Thu, Apr 30th, 2026
11:00am – 2:15pm US Eastern Time
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About the Event

From holidays to summer reunions, family gatherings can bring both joy and stress as clients navigate complex family dynamics, heightened emotions, and social expectations. This training equips mental health professionals with practical Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills tailored to help clients manage emotional intensity, maintain interpersonal effectiveness, and practice mindfulness during family gatherings and festive events.

The course offers a nuanced exploration of DBT principles and techniques—such as distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and radical acceptance—and provides strategies for helping clients apply these skills in emotionally charged holiday contexts. Participants will leave with actionable tools to support clients in achieving greater emotional balance, improved communication, and more meaningful connection during the holiday season and beyond.

Live Event
This live online event will be held as a Zoom Webinar. Attendees will have the option to interact through features such as the Chat and Q&A, but cameras and microphones will not be enabled.

Live Event Instructor

Diane Bigler, LCSW, LSCSW

Diane Bigler, LCSW, LSCSW

Diane Bigler, LCSW, LSCSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Missouri and Kansas with over 25 years of experience in the mental health field. She has held clinical positions as an outpatient and in-home therapist, and clinical supervisor. Diane was an Adjunct Professor of Social Work for 10 years at The University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare and a Field Liaison and Field Instructor. She has also held administrative positions as a program Director and Coordinator. Diane is a popular local and national trainer on a wide variety of mental health and workplace development topics for clinicians and corporations. Diane is most passionate about providing quality professional development to clinicians, employees, and leaders. For fun, Diane loves to spoil her four Dachshunds and rock out to 80’s music.

Target Audience

This live interactive webinar is intended for behavioral health professionals, including Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, MFT's and Addiction Professionals.

Learning Objectives

After taking this activity, you should be able to:

  1. 1 Identify at least three core DBT skills—such as emotion regulation, mindfulness, and distress tolerance—that are beneficial for managing family-related stress during the holiday season.
  2. 2 Apply DBT interventions to case examples involving family conflict, emotional triggers, and challenging social interactions during holiday events.
  3. 3 Develop a DBT-informed toolkit to support clients in preparing for and managing emotional, interpersonal, and self-care challenges during family gatherings and holiday situations.

Amestoy, M. E., Gulamani, T., & Uliaszek, A. A. (2025). Target validation in dialectical behavior therapy skills group: Emotion regulation, mindfulness, and distress tolerance as mediators of outcome. Psychotherapy Research, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2025.2522390

Everett, Y., Frigoletto, O. A., O’Brien, J. R., Byrd, A. L., Stepp, S. D., & Zalewski, M. (2025). How mothers with severe emotion dysregulation use DBT skills in parenting contexts: observational coding of skills use in a DBT skills training group. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 12(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40479-025-00279-2

Lin, I., Sharma, A., Rytting, C., Miner, A., Suh, J., & Althoff, T. (2024, August). IMBUE: improving interpersonal effectiveness through simulation and just-in-time feedback with human-language model interaction. In Proceedings of the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers) (pp. 810-840). https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2024.acl-long.47

Mossini, M. (2024). Efficacy of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills in Addressing Emotional Dysregulation among Adolescents: A Systematic Literature Review. International Journal on Social and Education Sciences, 6(3), 439-451. https://doi.org/10.46328/ijonses.684

Smith, L., Hunt, K., Parker, S., Camp, J., Stewart, C., & Morris, A. (2023). Parent and carer skills groups in dialectical behaviour therapy for high-risk adolescents with severe emotion dysregulation: a mixed-methods evaluation of participants’ outcomes and experiences. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(14), 6334. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20146334

Wilks, C. R., Valenstein-Mah, H., Tran, H., King, A. M., Lungu, A., & Linehan, M. M. (2017). Dialectical behavior therapy skills for families of individuals with behavioral disorders: Initial feasibility and outcomes. Cognitive and behavioral practice, 24(3), 288-295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2016.06.004

Disclosure to Learners

CE Learning Systems adheres to the ACCME's Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity – including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others ― are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (formerly known as commercial interests).

The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity's planners, faculty, and the reviewer:

Planners and Reviewers

The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.

Faculty

There are no known relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Commercial support

There is no commercial support for this distance-learning course.

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Joint Accreditation (JA)

3 Psychologist CE credit hours General
3 Social Worker CE credit hours Clinical
Eligible until May 1st, 2026
In support of improving patient care, CE Learning Systems, LLC, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
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American Psychological Association (APA)

3 CE credit hours Clinical
Eligible until May 1st, 2026
Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.
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Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB ACE)

3 CE credit hours Clinical
Eligible until May 1st, 2026
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, CE Learning Systems LLC is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 3 clinical continuing education credit(s).
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3 CE credit hours
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NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC)

3 CE credit hours
Eligible until Apr 30th, 2026
This course has been approved by CE Learning Systems, service provider of Impact CE, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #192243, CE Learning Systems is responsible for all aspects of their programming.
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NAADAC Approved Education Provider

Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling (FL CSW, MFT, MHC)

3 CE credit hours CE Broker logo 20-1364723
Eligible until May 1st, 2026
Impact CE, a service of CE Learning Systems, is approved by the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling (Provider # 50-315).
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Florida Certification Board (FCB)

3 CE credit hours
Eligible until Apr 30th, 2026
Impact CE, a service of CE learning Systems, is approved by the Florida Certification Board (FCB) to offer continuing education programs (Provider # 5069A).
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Florida Board of Psychology

3 CE credit hours CE Broker logo 20-1364723
Eligible until May 1st, 2026
Impact CE, a service of CE Learning Systems, is approved by the Florida Board of Psychology (Provider # 50-315).
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Missouri Credentialing Board (MCB)

3 CE credit hours
Eligible until Apr 30th, 2026
AddictionCounselorCE is an approved provider of the Missouri Substance Abuse Professional Credentialing Board (Provider #101). AddictionCounselorCE maintains responsibility for this course and its contents.
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New York Education Department Board of Social Work

3 contact hours
Eligible until Apr 30th, 2026
CE Learning Systems, LLC, (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers. Provider #0060.
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New York Education Department Board of Creative Arts Therapy (NYSEDCAT)

3 CE credit hours
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CE Learning Systems (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists. #CAT-0008
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New York Education Department Board of Mental Health Counseling

3 CE credit hours
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CE Learning Systems, LLC (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0072.
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New York Education Department Board of Psychologists

3 CE credit hours
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CE Learning Systems, LLC, (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for psychologists, # PSY-0016.
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New York Education Department Board of Marriage and Family Therapy

3 CE credit hours
Eligible until Apr 30th, 2026
CE Learning Systems, LLC (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0045.
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Virginia Certification Board (VCB)

3 CE credit hours
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Virginia Certification Board educational provider # 106
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Event Agenda

Agenda times are listed in US Eastern Time. That is 3 hours later than US Pacific Time. The event starts at 8:00am US Pacific Time.

11:00 – 11:30 AM: Welcome

  • Overview of training goals and learning objectives
  • Brief discussion of challenges clients face during family gatherings and holiday stress
  • Experiental mindfulness exercise: reflection discussions
  • Introduce core DBT skills: mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance

11:30 AM – 12:00 PM: Understanding Core DBT Skills in Family Contexts

  • Explore emotion regulation techniques for managing heightened emotions
  • Practice mindfulness strategies to stay present during stressful interactions
  • Discuss distress tolerance tools for unexpected triggers or conflict

12:00 – 12:30 PM: Applying DBT to Case Examples

  • Work through scenarios involving family conflict and overwhelming social interactions
  • Identify which DBT skills are most appropriate for each situation
  • Participants reflect on practical application to clients’ holiday experiences

12:30 – 12:45 PM: Break (15 minutes)

12:45 – 1:45 PM: Interpersonal Effectiveness and Communication Strategies

  • Explore assertiveness, boundary-setting, and maintaining relationships during stressful family events
  • Practice DBT-based communication skills in dyads or small groups
  • Discuss radical acceptance for managing family expectations

1:45 – 2:15 PM: Developing a Personalized DBT Toolkit & Wrap-Up

  • Create individualized strategies for clients to prepare for and navigate family gatherings
  • Review core skills learned and integrate into a practical toolkit
  • Q&A and resources review

Policies

If a grievance arises pertaining to your participation in our continuing education activities, please contact our support team immediately. See our full grievance policy for more information.

ADA accommodations will be made in accordance with the law; please indicate your special needs when you register by contacting us.

Up to 30 days prior to the event, live event registrations may be canceled for a refund via the current courses tab in your member account. Less than 30 days prior to the event, live event registration purchases are not eligible for a refund, but can be transferred to a different event. Please contact our support team for assistance with changing your registration.

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If you need to cancel your registration for a webinar, please contact our support team for assistance prior to the event. Please note our refund policy, above.

If the activity must be cancelled by the provider, all attendees will receive an email notifying them of the cancellation. The email will also provide details about transferring the registration to another educational activity or receiving a refund of the registration fee. As always, you can contact our support team if you have questions or concerns.

Frequently Asked Questions

Once you register, you'll receive an email with the link and instructions to join the live event. The event will be hosted via Zoom. You may test your Zoom connection prior to the event at the Zoom Test page We recommend logging in 10-15 minutes early to be sure your connection is ready.

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