Music Therapy Meets DBT
(Dialectical Behavior Therapy)
A Proven Approach for Managing Impulsive Behaviors and Emotions
Explore how DBT Informed Music Therapy can support you!
DBT-inspired music therapy tools give you creative and practical ways to help clients build resilience, regulate emotions, and communicate more effectively. At The Spiegel Academy, you’ll learn how to integrate DBT principles into your sessions ethically, confidently, and in ways that truly support real-world change — with training that can lead to recognition as a DBT Informed Music Therapist.
DBT is an evidence-based approach that teaches clear, actionable skills for navigating life’s challenges, making wise decisions, and improving emotional and interpersonal effectiveness.
👉 See research on DBT and music therapy here.
FREE DBT STARTER KIT!
Confidently Guide Clients
Through Their Toughest Moments
Learn how to help clients find emotional balance using DBT’s proven skill sets - made practical through music.
Gain confidence with structured, ready-to-use interventions for mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Strengthen your own ability to cope, regulate, and thrive - bringing more calm, clarity, and purpose to your work.
As a music therapist, you'll add a powerful dimension to your practice
Start Your Journey - Choose What Works For You
Whether you’re brand new to DBT and music therapy ... or ready for advanced training, you’ll find an option here that fits your next step.
If you're ready to go all-in ...
Join a small group comprehensive yearlong supervised individualized study with MT applications
DBT informed Music Therapy Training
Earn a credential with an endorsement as a
DBT Informed Music Therapist!
Be one of the trained DBT informed music therapists with this exclusive credential and stand out in your field,
while supporting your clients in creating a life worth loving.
Hear from Colleagues: Real Impact in the Workplace
Caitlin Carter, MT-BC and Kelly Howard MT-BC share how DBT Informed Music Therapy Training has transformed their workplace and client outcomes.
Listen to their experience as they explain why integrating DBT skills into music therapy has been a game-changer.
Caitlin Carter MT-BC works at an inpatient state psych hospital. Her patients exhibit substance misuse, suicidality, aggression towards others, and self harm. Her hospital wanted to put a focus on suicide prevention so sent team members (all but Cait, originally) to DBT training with Behavioral Tech. Cait took her training from the Spiegel Academy. Once the hospital saw Cait's DBT Informed Music Therapy work they sent her to the Behavioral Tech intensive training. Cait says she found that the Spiegel Academy's training:
- gave her a much better understanding of the skills than the other training so she's able to talk about them more confidentently and teach them more competently
This training really helped her understand and implement the skills in the most effective way.
She says "its a great program and all music therapists can benefit from it no matter what population you work with."
Kelly Howard MT-BC works with teens and adolescents in mental health on the YES waiver in Texas. She says this training "changed my life!" She felt like she was just putting a band aide on a boo boo, not being as effective as she wanted to be. Now with DBT she feels equipped to work with clients and bring them real life strategies, skills that are not only helping them today but are going to help them for life . She feel s so much more empowered to really help them. Kelly uses DBT herself every day with herself, her family, her friends, and is able to really impact her clients. She was worried that she was too old to take this class but is now so grateful. " It's worth it. It's worth the time and the financial commitment." She looks forward to class every Monday night to interact and network with other therapists, the teachers, other people in the class. The resources ...It is worth every bit!
NOT ready for the in-depth yearlong training?
...Start with this.
Your investment in this bundle of self study classes will be credited towards the advanced training .
DBT Essentials Toolkit
for Music Therapists
- Gain knowledge of DBT's practical life skills and their application in music therapy.
- Get numerous music therapy interventions, resources, and tools for immediate use with clients.
- Learn the language of DBT to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Develop an understanding of fundamental DBT concepts.
- Lay the groundwork for seamlessly integrating DBT principles into your practice.
- Notice the impact in your life and that of your clients
23 CMTEs
Want a taste first?
INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP
2 CMTEs
Integrating DBT into Your MT for Effective Results
Learn what DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) is and why it's so effective with music therapy
Understand new strategies that music therapists who've learned them use to increase revenue and client outcomes
Empower clients to reduce impulsive behaviors, cope through difficult times, and regulate emotions
Learn formulas for effective communication to assist your clients (and yourself) in daily interactions
Founder of DBT Informed Music Therapy Training
“Hi, I'm Deborah Spiegel MT-BC.
I’ve been a Music Therapist since 1976, and nothing has been more transformative for my patients and for me than training as a DBT-informed music therapist and integrating those skills into practice.
Since 2001, I’ve applied DBT directly in music therapy, and since 2011 I’ve been training other music therapists to do the same.
Now, together with my team of credentialed DBT clinicians and DBT-informed music therapists, I’m excited to share these tools with you so you too can make a bigger impact in your clients’ lives and your own.”
Resources: Check out My Book
Creative DBT Activities
Using Music:
Interventions for Enhancing Engagement and Effectiveness in Therapy
by Deborah Spiegel, Suzanne Makary, Lauren Bonavitacola,
(Jessica Kingsley 2020)
This and the following book links are Amazon affiliate links.
Inside the Book:
Part 1
Group activities to teach and reinforce DBT skills
Part 2
Written in a self-help format so you can print pages for handouts to give to clients.
Other DBT Books that We Recommend
Click each photo to see more about the book on Amazon.
Disclaimer: The term DBT-Informed Music Therapist is reserved for individuals who have completed The Spiegel Academy’s comprehensive DBT-Informed Music Therapy Training Program, which includes specialized coursework, supervision, and skills integration. Participation in other courses or workshops offered by The Spiegel Academy provides education in DBT principles and techniques but does not, by itself, confer DBT-Informed status or certification.