Dialectical behavior therapy / DBT-A05-4
One Thing with Flexibility — Session activity
Facilitate a structured practice of one thing with flexibility with preparation, reflection, and an agreed closing.
30 minutes · Session guide · Mental health professionals
Fictional example: Taylor reads one paragraph while allowing a needed movement break.
Use within your training and assessment of readiness. Focused attention can be adapted to capacity and interruptions.
0–5 min | Agree on purpose and fit
Explain the educational scope. Ask what would be useful, check readiness and access needs, and establish choices to observe, adapt, or pass. Use an ordinary example; do not solicit trauma narratives.
5–10 min | Orient with an example
Focused attention can be adapted to capacity and interruptions. Fictional example: Taylor reads one paragraph while allowing a needed movement break. Ask what is observed and what remains uncertain.
10–20 min | Practice and compare
Choose a tiny task, define a short focus interval, and plan how to return after interruption. Offer quiet individual work, a supported conversation, or an observing role. Compare two possible responses without evaluating people as right or wrong.
20–25 min | Reflect on meaning
What amount of focus is realistic today? Ask what fit, what did not fit, and how culture, power, disability access, or external conditions affect the options.
25–30 min | Integrate and close
Invite one optional next step or support request. Orient to the current setting, allow an unfinished question to remain unfinished, and agree how to revisit it. End early or adapt if activation increases.
Adaptations
For a group, use fiction and no compulsory round-robin disclosure. For remote use, allow off-camera reflection and private notes. For brief use, keep one example and one question while retaining opening and closing choices.
Prompts for this resource
- What outcome would make this practice useful?
- What amount of focus is realistic today?
- What adaptation or follow-up is needed?
Conceptual background
Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training: Fundamentals — Behavioral Tech Institute
Background on the approach only. Original exercises and wording are by More Than Therapy with AI assistance; the source does not validate or endorse these materials.