• Event Info
  • Agenda
  • Speakers
  • CE Info

DBT with Couples

About this event

DBT with Couples: A Comprehensive Clinical Training


July 17 & July 31, 2026

11:00 AM – 4:30 PM ET

10 CE Hours | Live Virtual Training

Cost: $449


DBT with Couples: A Comprehensive Clinical Training is an intensive 10-hour, two-day virtual workshop designed for clinicians who already have a foundation in Dialectical Behavior Therapy and want to extend that expertise into couples work. No prior experience with couples therapy is required.

Grounded primarily in Fruzzetti's framework for DBT couples and family assessment and intervention, and informed by current empirical research, this training provides a comprehensive roadmap for applying DBT to couples experiencing emotional dysregulation, chronic conflict, invalidation, and relationship distress.

Participants will learn how to:

  • Conceptualize couple functioning using the transactional model
  • Conduct comprehensive couples-specific assessment
  • Apply the DBT treatment hierarchy in the treatment of couples
  • Build and maintain commitment to treatment
  • Use both individual and relationship-specific DBT skills to reduce conflict and increase closeness
  • Manage sessions effectively, including preventing and responding to escalation and therapy-interfering behavior
  • Integrate couples work as an adjunct to individual DBT treatment when relationship dysfunction is contributing to treatment targets
  • Implement practical interventions that can be immediately applied in clinical practice

The training combines didactic instruction, live demonstrations and role plays, case examples, and interactive discussion to help clinicians develop both a strong conceptual understanding of DBT couples treatment and the confidence to begin using these strategies in their own work.

Participants will leave with a clear framework for assessment, case conceptualization, treatment planning, and intervention, as well as practical tools that can be implemented immediately with couples and families. Whether you are looking to begin incorporating couples work into your practice or strengthen your existing work with couples, this training provides a comprehensive and immediately applicable DBT-informed approach.


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  • Luciana Payne, PhD
    Luciana Payne, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist specializing in work with parents, couples, and families. Dr. Payne earned her graduate degree at the University of Nevada, Reno, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at McLean Hospital, both under the mentorship of Dr. Alan Fruzzetti. She is currently an Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, where she contributes to research advancing interventions for families affected by emotion dysregulation. Dr. Payne has worked with hundreds of families and professionals to enhance the quality of care parents receive in adolescent and young adult treatment programs. She has co-authored multiple publications on adapting Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for couples and families and provides training to clinicians nationally and internationally. In 2020, she co-founded The Be Center, an organization dedicated to supporting parents and families navigating complex mental health challenges. Dr. Payne’s passion lies in bridging research and real-world practice—empowering parents, strengthening families, and changing the landscape of family treatment.
    Sessions
    • 01 : DBT with Couples - Day 1
    • 02 : DBT with Couples - Day 2

CE Info

Earn up to 10 CE Credit Hours

Before the event, you will receive an email from CE-Go with access to the virtual event. After the event, you will receive access to your evaluation and continuing education certificate via a personalized "attendee dashboard" link, hosted on the CE-Go website. This link and access to the virtual event will be sent to the email account you used to register for the event.

Upon accessing the CE-Go "attendee dashboard", you will be able to:

  • Complete evaluation forms for the event
  • Download your continuing education certificate in a PDF format

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE-Go platform, please contact CE-Go at 888-498-5578 or by email at support@ce-go.com Please Note: Emails for this event will come from "support@ceactivities.com".

If you have any continuing education related questions, please contact your event organizer.

Please make sure to check your spam/junk folder in case those emails get "stuck". We'd also suggest "Allowlisting" support@ceactivities.com. This tells your email client that you know this sender and trust them, which will keep emails from this contact at the top of your inbox and out of the junk folder.

Target Audience

This educational activity is intended for behavioral health professionals, including:

Licensed mental health clinicians (psychologists, LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCs, licensed counselors, psychiatrists, NPs in behavioral health) with prior DBT training
DBT team members seeking to expand skills into couples and relational work
Clinicians whose individual DBT clients are impacted by significant relationship dysfunction
DBT program leaders interested in building a couples component into their practice or program
Clinicians at any stage of DBT practice—no couples therapy background required

Continuing Education Credit Hours are available from the following organizations

Virtual

Joint Accreditation
In support of improving patient care, CE Learning Systems 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.
American Psychological Association
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.
New York Education Department's State Board for Social Work
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 mental health counselors. #0060.
New York Education Department for Licensed Mental Health Counselors
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.
New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology
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 licensed mental health counselors. #PSY-0016.
New York Education Department's State Board for Marriage and Family Therapy
CE Learning Systems, LLC  (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Marriage and Family Therapy as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MFT-0045.

Event Learning Objectives

  • Describe key empirically-supported patterns that distinguish stable, satisfied couples from those at risk for high conflict.
  • Explain how emotional dysregulation, invalidation, and behavioral reactivity show up in couples’ transactions and contribute to relational distress.
  • Identify how the transactional model applies to couple and family systems, including the role of reciprocal invalidation and environmental reinforcement of dysfunctional behavior patterns.
  • Conduct a comprehensive DBT-informed couples assessment, including evaluation of relationship history, current interaction patterns, individual psychopathology, safety concerns, and each partner’s treatment goals.
  • Apply Fruzzetti’s framework for assessing accurate versus inaccurate emotional expression, validation, and invalidation within the couple system as a basis for treatment planning.
  • Identify key special considerations for couples work, including ongoing intimate partner violence, severe individual psychopathology, and asymmetric motivation.
  • Apply DBT with Couples’s treatment hierarchy, including how to integrate it to individual DBT hierarchy, when needed.
  • Describe how to structure the opening phase of DBT with Couples, including getting started, orienting both partners to treatment, building shared commitment, and establishing the treatment relationship.
  • Identify and manage common therapy-interfering behaviors in couples sessions, including in-session escalation.
  • Apply DBT commitment strategies within the couples context to strengthen each partner’s commitment to change and to the treatment process.
  • Identify and use couples specific in-session stragies.
  • Implement both individual and relationship-specific skills from Fruzzetti’s model, including accurate emotional expression, reciprocal validation, and behavioral change through relationship skill-building.
  • Conduct a double behavioral analyses within couples sessions, including identifying precipitating events, each partner’s emotional and behavioral responses, and collaborative identification of skillful alternatives.
  • Identify strategies for managing in-session emotional escalation effectively.
  • Describe how DBT with Couples can be structured as an adjunct to individual DBT treatment, including coordination with individual therapists, maintaining treatment hierarchy consistency, and integrating couples work into a comprehensive DBT plan.
  • Identify transactional treatment targets in a DBT individual case conceptualization and determine when referral or initiation of couples work is clinically indicated.
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DBT with Couples
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$449.00
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  • CE Hours
    10
  • Type
    Live Interactive Webinar
  • Date
    July 17 - 31, 2026

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