- Live Interactive Webinar
- 12-3:30 PM (Eastern)
- Wednesday, April 8, 2026
- Held online
- 3 CE Hours
- $139
Overview.
This 3-hour workshop will discuss the overlap between DBT’s biosocial, behavioral and dialectical theories and SPACE parent-based model, highlighting how DBT’s core assumptions about acceptance and change can guide parent-only interventions.
Using this integrated lens, participants will learn how to conceptualize parental accommodation as both valid and problematic. Attendees will learn to design an intervention that reduces accommodation at a pace that is manageable for parents and their adult children. Practical strategies and techniques for helping parents feel less “trapped” will be emphasized.
Specific topics include assessing and addressing accommodation around high-risk behaviors in adult children, including suicidal communication and urges, patterns of non-suicidal self-injury, and moderate to severe eating disorder behaviors.
This workshop serves as the first in a 2-part series, laying the groundwork for a subsequent training focused on teaching DBT skills to parents of struggling adult children.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Articulate the theoretical overlap between DBT’s biosocial model and SPACE’s accommodation framework
- Define parental accommodation as a behaviorally specific treatment target using both DBT and SPACE terminology
- Structure parent-focused interventions that aim to reduce accommodation in “right sized” amounts for both parents and struggling adult children.
- Identify ways to tailor interventions on parental accommodation around high-risk behaviors in struggling multi-diagnostic adult children.
While this training is Part I of a two-part training, attendees are free to register for one or both trainings. Designed as an intermediate-level training, there are no pre-requisites. However, it is recommended that participants have a working knowledge of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
Instructor Credentials
Amy Kalasunas (she/her), LPCC-S, CCMHC, is Chief Operating Officer and Director of DBT Services a CEBT. She is a behaviorist with over 25 years of experience working within evidence-based treatment models. A DBT-Linehan Board of Certification™ Certified Clinician, she has extensive training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and its sub-specialty areas of DBT for Eating Disorders, DBT- Prolonged Exposure for Borderline Personality Disorder, and DBT supervision and consultation team adherence practice.
A co-chair for the DBT LBC™ Publications and Communications Committee, Kalasunas is also a highly regarded instructor and trainer, and a sought-after presenter on the topics of comprehensive Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), DBT and Multi-diagnostic Eating Disorders (MED-DBT), and DBT-Prolonged Exposure and Eating Disorders. She developed, piloted, and offers trainings on interventions for parents of multi-diagnostic adult children using an adaptation of the Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) protocol and DBT.
Her clinical work has included developing, implementing and evaluating program outcomes across the spectrum of clinical settings, including inpatient psychiatric hospitals, Partial Hospitalization Programs, Intensive Outpatient Programs, community mental health agencies, specialty practice clinics and private practice offices.
JAN
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