Help your clients move from avoidance to action. Learn how to apply DBT skills to reduce avoidance and support clients with ADHD and executive functioning challenges.
Executive functioning challenges often leave clients feeling stuck in cycles of avoidance, overwhelm, and self-criticism, even when they genuinely want to change. As therapists, it can be frustrating to watch clients leave session with insight and motivation, only to return the following week feeling discouraged that they couldn't follow through.
This live 3-hour training explores how established DBT skills can be thoughtfully applied to help clients reduce avoidance, regulate emotions, and take meaningful action. Through a practical, evidence-informed framework, you'll learn how to identify the emotional barriers behind executive functioning challenges and select interventions that support lasting behavioral change.
Does this sound familiar?
Your client...
- knows what they need to do, but can't seem to get started.
- leaves session motivated, but returns the following week saying, "I just couldn't make myself do it."
- avoids important tasks despite genuinely wanting to complete them.
- feels overwhelmed before they even begin.
- becomes stuck in cycles of shame, procrastination, and self-criticism.
- understands the skills intellectually but struggles to use them consistently in daily life.
If you've found yourself wondering why insight isn't translating into action, this training will help you better understand what's getting in the way, and how to respond using established DBT skills.
What You'll Learn
During this live workshop, we'll explore how to:
- Understand executive functioning through a behavioral and emotion regulation lens.
- Apply core DBT concepts, including biosocial theory, validation, functional assessment, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance, to executive functioning challenges.
- Identify how shame, avoidance, and emotional vulnerability interfere with behavioral follow-through.
- Select DBT skills based on the function of behavior rather than the diagnosis alone.
- Teach clients practical ways to move from avoidance to meaningful action.
Why This Training is Different
Many ADHD trainings focus primarily on organization, productivity strategies, or symptom management.
Many DBT trainings focus on learning the skills themselves.
This training brings those perspectives together by exploring how established DBT skills can be thoughtfully applied to the executive functioning challenges commonly experienced by clients with ADHD.
Rather than asking, "Which skill should I teach?" we'll focus on a different clinical question: "What is getting in the way of action, and which DBT skill is most likely to help?"
You'll leave with a practical framework for choosing interventions with greater confidence, not simply another collection of worksheets or productivity tips.
Basic Info
Format: Offered live online and in-person throughout the year.
Duration: 3 Hours
Continuing Education: This course is approved for 3 continuing education hours for Kansas and Missouri Licensed Social Workers. Professionals licensed in other disciplines and states should consult their licensing board regarding acceptance of this training for continuing education credit.
Audience: Social Workers, Professional Counselors, Psychologists, Marriage and Family Therapists, graduate students, and other behavioral health professionals.
Training Includes:
- Participant workbook
- Printable slide handouts
- Clinical case examples
- Resource list
- Live question-and-answer session
- Certificate of attendance
Investment: $189
Registration: Select from upcoming live online or in-person training dates below. Seating is limited to allow an interactive learning experience.
Virtual Online
10/2/26
9:00 am – 12:00 pm CT
Kansas City, MO
10/16/26
9:00 am – 12:00 pm CT
Springfield, MO
11/6/26
9:00 am – 12:00 pm CT
Virtual Online
1/15/27
9:00 am – 12:00 pm CT
Meet Your Instructor
Kristen Shuler, MSW, LCSW is a comprehensive DBT clinician, and founder of DBT Ozarks and DBT Hub. She provides Dialectical Behavior Therapy to adults and has extensive experience helping clients navigate emotion dysregulation, executive functioning challenges, ADHD, and related concerns.
As both a clinician and a person living with ADHD, Kristen understands that executive functioning challenges are rarely about a lack of motivation or insight. She uses many of the same DBT skills she teaches every day to navigate task initiation, overwhelm, emotional regulation, and behavioral follow-through in her own life.
Kristen's teaching style combines current research, established DBT principles, real-world clinical examples, and practical strategies that therapists can immediately integrate into their work.
DBT Ozarks is a division of Social Work SC, LLC