DBT House / DBH-A18-4
The Help-Seeking Path — Session activity
Facilitate a structured practice of the help-seeking path with preparation, reflection, and an agreed closing.
30 minutes · Session guide · Mental health professionals
Fictional example: Riley wants to know whom to contact when familiar coping is insufficient.
Use within your training and assessment of readiness. A visible route can make asking for support more concrete.
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
A visible route can make asking for support more concrete. Fictional example: Riley wants to know whom to contact when familiar coping is insufficient. Ask what is observed and what remains uncertain.
10–20 min | Practice and compare
Draw a routine support path and a higher-support path using existing care guidance and verified contacts chosen by the person. 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 would make using this path easier? 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 would make using this path easier?
- 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.