In order to help you organize your application, below is a list of the requirements and documentation you will need to have readily available: 

Step 1: Application Requirements: ($155) 

Your personal information 

  • List dates, program names, and addresses of training or employment of employment/addresses and places of employment 
  • List all active or inactive professional licenses  
  • Include license numbers and the contact information for the issuing agency – address, phone, etc. Accurate information on the addresses, etc. will help avoid delays when sources are contacted for verification of the information submitted by you.  
  • You must be a licensed, independent mental health practitioner with an unrestricted license.  Conditional licenses/certificates that require supervision to work as a mental health professional are not acceptable.  You will need the name of the agency that granted your license to practice in the mental health field and the physical address and phone number. 

Education 

  • Your graduate degree must be in a mental health-related field and come from an educational program at a regionally accredited institution of higher education or recognized by a country’s top government agency.  You will need the following information:  
  • Dates of attendance 
  • Degrees 
  • Registrar’s address for each school you attended. 

DBT-Related Educational/Training experiences  

  • A minimum of 40 didactic training hours specific to DBT are required. The 40 didactic training hours can be provided by any training organization.  
  • Below are examples of how to obtain the required 40 hours:  
  • CE certificates of attendance for workshops or seminars 
  • Intensive trainings 
  • College or graduate coursework Online learning opportunities 
  • In-service training 
  • Practica/internship or any structured learning experiences Didactic hours  

Clinical Experience in DBT  

  • Review your caseload of DBT clients and select three cases in which you were: 
    • The primary individual therapist
    • The clients were concurrently enrolled in a DBT Skills Group 
    • The clients completed Stage 1 treatment with you within 3 years of application approval date 
    • These would be three clients for whom you have done the following:  
    • Oriented them to the treatment (structure, theory, goals/targets and commitments) 
    • Provided regularly scheduled individual DBT therapy 
    • Made available phone coaching 
    • Had diary card and treatment targets that met the DBT Stage I hierarchy.  
  • In addition, during your work with those three clients both you and the skills trainer were part of a DBT Consultation team that met regularly. You will need to provide:
    • The name of the clinic where the client received your services 
    • The dates of those services 
    • The goals/targets at the beginning of treatment 
    • The outcome relative to those targets by the end of Stage I treatment (i.e., measures that may have been administered, diary card date, etc.) 

****Please do not include ANY identifying information on your application about any of your clients, including initials, etc. 

DBT Team experiences 

  • There are two primary requirements:  
  • Current participation on a DBT Team. 
  • A total of 12 consecutive months of participation in one or more DBT consultation teams (they do not need to be the same consecutive team)  
  • You will need the clinic name 
  • # of members 
  • Dates of participation 
  • Frequency of meetings 
  • Team Leader’s name 
  • Phone number and email address for all consultation team members that fulfill these participation requirements 

DBT Skills knowledge/experience 

  • You will be required to attest to having completed the three following requirements:  
  • Read the Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder by Marsha Linehan (May 21, 1993) 
  • Completed all the homework assignments in the manual 
  • Taught or participated as a student in all modules of skills training OR taught all DBT skills within individual therapy and coached clients in the application of the skills.  Test questions will also be based on the skills as presented in this book. 

Letter of Recommendation  

  • A letter of recommendation is required. The letter should speak to your character and competency as a DBT practitioner and should be provided by your Team Leader.  
  • If you are a Team Leader, you will need a letter from a licensed mental health practitioner who can attest to your character and competency as a DBT practitioner also 

Mindfulness Experience 

  • Formal training in mindfulness is required and can be demonstrated by at least one of the following four experiences and you will need dates and descriptions for each.  
  • Mindfulness retreat 
  • Formal practice community participation 
  • Formally a student of a recognized Zen/contemplative teacher 
  • One formal training in mindfulness 

Describe your regular, current mindfulness practice  

Step 2: Exam: $270 to DBT-LBC and $150 paid to Pearson Vue 

(After application has been approved, applicant will be approved to sit for the exam at a Pearson Vue Testing Center) 

All knowledge exam questions are evaluated based on an independent psychometrically sound Job Task Analysis (JTA) and based on material in the following sources 

  • Linehan (1993a), Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. New York: The Guilford Press 
  • Linehan (1993b), Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder. New York: The Guilford Press 
  • Linehan (2015), DBT Skills Training Manual, 2nd Edition. New York: The Guilford Press 
  • Linehan (1997), Validation and Psychotherapy, In Bohart & Greenberg, (Eds.), Empathy Reconsidered: New Directions in Psychotherapy, pp. 333-392. For your convenience, here is a link for the Linehan (1997) chapter: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232561580 

Part 3: Work Product Demonstration (After passing the exam, the applicant’s application will be opened to receive submission of videos): $270 

(***Please note, currently, we are accepting only English language videos) 

After passing the exam, you will be asked to submit:

  • 3 consecutive video recordings of a Stage I client (Pre-treatment-sessions 1-4, are also accepted and would also be considered stage 1)
  • Associated work sample materials (i.e., diary cards and Session Information Forms).
  • The video recordings will then be reviewed and coded to evidence-based adherence standards for DBT.
  • The sessions must be within 2 years of video submission. One of these sessions must meet adherence standards to pass.
    • If you do not pass, a second submission of consecutive sessions will be required and must be provided within 3 months. (There is no additional fee for the second submission provided you do so before the deadline.)
    • If the second submission is unsuccessful an additional 6-month wait will be necessary. We recommend supervision by a trained DBT clinician in this case to assist you.