British Isles DBT Training
British Isles DBT Training (biDBT) is the sole licensed Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) training provider in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. For nearly three decades, we have been at the forefront of DBT training, consultancy, and implementation.
Building on this expertise, we now bring the power of DBT into education. Delivering evidence-based training that bridges research and practice, equipping educators with the skills and confidence to support student well-being, behaviour, and resilience. Our work is designed for staff working with learners aged 11+, across secondary schools, sixth forms, colleges, and universities.
At the heart of our approach is a commitment to making research practical and usable for educators. Too often, staff are expected to respond to complex well-being and behavioural challenges without clear, workable tools. We provide training that translates the latest evidence into strategies educators can apply immediately in classrooms, tutorials, and pastoral settings.
Our programmes are rooted in the proven framework of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), explicitly adapted for education settings. By focusing on four core skill areas — mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness — staff gain practical techniques to:
- Help students manage emotions and reduce behavioural outbursts.
- Strengthen resilience, focus, and relationships among peers.
- Reduce stress and improve confidence when managing classroom challenges.
The benefits are felt across the whole community:
- Students develop coping strategies that support both learning and personal growth.
- Staff gain confidence and reduce stress through the use of structured, evidence-based approaches.
- Schools, colleges, and universities create calmer, more supportive environments for teaching and learning, alongside comprehensive well-being provisions.
Our training can be accessed through national open-enrolment workshops, where individual staff can join colleagues from across the country, or commissioned as a package for your organisation, tailored to the specific needs of your setting. Delivery is available both online and in person, offering flexibility for schools and institutions of all sizes.
Our work is informed by robust research, including UK-based feasibility trials of DBT skills programmes in mainstream education settings (Hastings et al.), which show significant promise for reducing emotional dysregulation and improving student coping. By grounding our training in research and co-developing it with practitioners, we ensure it remains both academically credible and highly relevant in real classrooms.
Our mission is simple: to empower educators with the tools they need to help young people thrive, thereby creating healthier, more resilient, and more compassionate learning environments.
