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Save Lives. Transform Your DBT Practice.

DBT-Sleep: Foundational
Online Certification Course

  • Reduce your DBT client's risk of self-harm & suicide by competently assessing & treating their (extremely common) struggles with sleep disruption & insomnia.
  • Free 60-minute group consultation each week with Dr. Brian Curtis, PhD, DBSM through Zoom (a $300/month value!)
  • Earn 26.0 Continuing Education (CE) hours.
  • Lifetime access to the DBT-Sleep: Foundational course curriculum.
  • Transform your DBT Practice as a Certified DBT-Sleep: Foundational Clinician
Confidently Assess and Treat Sleep Difficulties to Reduce Your DBT Clients' Suicide Risk, Enhance Skill Learning, and Build a Thriving Life Worth Living. Enroll Now!
Certified DBT-Sleep: Foundational Clinician. Large. Honest Sleep, LLC
Overcome your insomnia

Sleep Disruption in DBT: Research indicates ~50% of your DBT clients with BPD, ~70% of your DBT clients with PTSD, & ~85% of your DBT clients with major depression are currently struggling with insomnia.

Sleep & Suicide: Insomnia is a well-established risk factor for non-suicidal self-injury, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, & suicide death, with ~75% of individuals who attempted suicide reporting difficulty falling asleep & ~70% reporting difficulty staying asleep.

Saving Lives by Treating Sleep in DBT: Treating insomnia in individuals reporting suicidal ideation (SI) has been shown to reduce SI by 25% post-treatment & 19% at 1-year follow up with an 82% reduction in new-onset SI.

Treating Sleep is Effective in DBT Populations: Treating insomnia not only reduces suicide risk, but also improves PTSD severity, substance use, anxiety, depression, & decreases time spent in bipolar episodes, resulting in recommendations to integrate the assessment & treatment of sleep disruption in DBT as standard of care.

Overcoming Barriers: Although DBT is one of the few evidence-based treatments to specifically highlight sleep disruption as a vulnerability factor for emotion dysregulation (e.g., the optional one-page sleep hygiene & nightmare protocol handouts), there is no protocol in DBT for routine assessment, daily monitoring, or treatment of sleep disruption. DBT-Sleep: Foundational overcomes these barriers by offering the same step-by-step process Dr. Curtis uses in his clinical practice to assess & treat sleep disruption & insomnia in DBT.

References

Course Objectives

  • Describe the prevalence & consequences of sleep disruptions in DBT client populations.
  • Explain the functions of sleep, the circadian & homeostatic processes regulating sleep, & how this knowledge informs clinical assessment & treatment.
  • Describe diagnostic criteria & use standard assessment measures for clinically relevant sleep-wake disorders including insomnia, circadian rhythm disorders, obstructive sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, & nightmare disorder.
  • Explain in detail a step-by-step process for conducting a sleep-focused intake interview including standardized assessment measures in sleep medicine.
  • Discuss & practice implementing the central components of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), Mindfulness-Based Therapy for Insomnia (MBT-I), & Acceptance & Commitment Therapy for Insomnia (ACT-I) while integrating the use of core skills in DBT to increase the effectiveness of sleep-focused treatment.
  • Explain evidence-based methods for gradual tapering of sleep medications in coordination with client’s prescribing clinician(s).
  • Apply knowledge from this course using case examples to generate a case conceptualization, individualized treatment plan, & know when referral to a sleep specialist may be warranted.
  • Ensure ongoing effective assessment & treatment of sleep disruption & insomnia in DBT with free weekly 60-minute group Zoom consultations with Dr. Brian Curtis, PhD, DBSM through the exclusive DBT-Sleep: Foundational Community.
Overcoming insomnia - Honest Sleep - Brian Curtis, Ph.D.

Meet Your Course Instructor:
Brian Curtis, PhD, DBSM

Education

Doctorate (PhD) in clinical psychology, Board certified in Behavioral Sleep Medicine (DBSM), Master’s (MS) in neuroscience under the mentorship of Nobel Prize winning geneticist Mario Capecchi, PhD.

Clinical Experience

Advanced training and certification in evidence-based assessment and treatment of borderline personality disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic insomnia, and nightmare disorder.

Research

12 years of research experience and 12 peer-reviewed scientific publications in some of the world's top journals in neuroscience, psychology, and sleep medicine. Member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine.

DBT-Sleep

Dr. Curtis is one of only 218 clinicians in the world who is board certified in behavioral sleep medicine (DBSM) and the only DBSM specialist with advanced training and certification in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).  

Brian's CV
Brian Curtis, Ph.D. - Founder of Honest Sleep, LLC

What Your Fellow DBT Clinicians Are Saying ...

"My Team and I were fortunate to have Dr. Brian Curtis do a didactic Lunch-and-Learn series on DBT-Sleep, spanning a month's time, for an audience of trainees brand new to DBT and working with disordered sleep, all the way to DBT-LBC Certified clinicians such as myself with 20 years of DBT practice.  

Every single session was well organized, engaging, and thoughtfully curated, and I can't tell you how many notes I took! After every session, the Team would chat excitedly about how we were planning to use the knowledge and techniques learned immediately with our clients.  

That is how well Brian set us up. Even after the first session, we walked away with tools to help our clients in tangible ways manage their wide range of sleep issues, and we felt confident in our ability to do so as a direct result of Brian's unique way of teaching and training. We have seen improvements in outcomes with our clients through application of what we learned, and also with ourselves!  

As someone with decades of sleep issues of all types, the implementation of what I learned from Brian shifted what my own sleep experience was, and for the better beyond belief. I stand behind Brian and his work, and am forever grateful to have learned from him."

Jacquelyn N. Smith, LCSW-R
Director of DBT and Training at Behavioral Psych Studio
DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician™
Jacquelyn N. Smith, LCSW-R
Director of DBT and Training at Behavioral Psych Studio
DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician™

"I took three of Dr. Curtis's live trainings in the fall of 2022. I can’t emphasize enough the amount of valuable information and tangible skills I gained from those trainings.

This has transformed the way I help my clients with sleep-related issues. Now I feel like I have some control over a problem that is so important for the population we serve.

If you have the chance to take Brian’s trainings, I would highly, HIGHLY recommend doing so for the benefit of both your clients and your practice."

Stacey Gillette, LCSW, CCTP
Stacey Gillette, LCSW, CCTP
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
DBT Clinician at T-K Ranch Equine Assisted Coaching

"This course goes beyond exceptional training and is an essential for any clinician who regularly utilizes DBT.

Many of my clients experienced sleep disruptions that were chronically underlying their problem behaviors and emotional pain, but which were not addressed given the severity and urgency of other issues in their lives.

This training was vital in helping both myself and my clients to deeply understand the driving factors for sleep disruptions and to gain the skills in regulating sleep while working within a DBT protocol.

This training will absolutely deepen your practice and quickly improve the lives of those you work with (and yourself)."

Jordan Kugler, PhD
Perspective Behavioral Health
Jordan Kugler, PhD
Psychologist
DBT Clinician at Perspective Behavioral Health

"I have attended several trainings by Dr. Curtis and have left each one a better clinician. He is bright, engaging, and clear as a presenter.

I not only felt like his training sharpened my conceptualization of the transactional relationship between sleep and mood, but I felt able to walk out of the training and implement new techniques in my sessions that day."

Erica Lander Miller, PsyD, Founder and Clinical Director of the Behavioral Care Center of New Jersey, LLC
Erica Lander Miller, PsyD
Founder & Clinical Director
Behavioral Care Center of New Jersey, LLC

"Dr. Curtis has succeeded in combining the most effective psychotherapeutic modality, DBT, with the field of sleep medicine to successfully treat sleep disorders in people who struggle with extreme depression, PTSD, severe anxiety, and personality disorders.

In 24 years of practicing DBT, I have yet to find a clinician that is more adept at applying concise and cohesive measures to relieve disordered sleep issues. Notable is his nonjudgmental stance which increases patient compliance in a historically challenging field of treatment. He is my first line of defense in treating patients with sleep difficulties."

Minal Shah MRC, NCC, LPC
Minal Shah, MRC, NCC, LPC
CEO & Clinical Director
Atlanta DBT Center

Course Curriculum

Confidently Assess and Treat Sleep Difficulties to Reduce Your DBT Clients' Suicide Risk, Enhance Skill Learning, and Build a Thriving Life Worth Living. Enroll Now!

Welcome, DBT-Sleep: Foundational Clinicians

Module 1: Why Focus on Sleep as a DBT Clinician?

Module 2: Sleep-Focused Assessment in DBT

Module 3: Session 1: Aligning the Balloon and the Clock

Module 4: Session 2: Break the Switch. Make Pizza. Drop the Rope.

Module 5: Session 3: Lights and Temperatures and Beers, Oh My!

Module 6: Session 4: Letting the Lizard Relax

Module 7: Session 5: Exploring Sleep-Related Thoughts and Beliefs

Module 8: Session 6: Solving Problems, Being Flexible

Module 9: Session 7 and Beyond: Case Example

Module 10: DBT-Sleep: Foundational Summary

Congratulations on Completing DBT-Sleep: Foundational!

Honest Sleep, LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.
Certified DBT-Sleep: Foundational Clinician. Large. Honest Sleep, LLC

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