Free Therapist Training›Free DBT Toolkit›Consultation Team
Last updated: November 11, 2026
A DBT consultation team agenda sets the order of the weekly team meeting, and the notes form records what happened in it: who attended, who held each role, each agenda item in priority order with the help the therapist asked for, what the team offered, and who follows up by when. The completed example shows one meeting of an invented four-person team: a client's suicidal crisis comes first, another client's self-harm second, a therapist's own therapy-interfering behavior third and scheduling last.
The template comes from the free DBT toolkit of the Sentio MFT program, which trains therapists with deliberate practice. The form's roles and its box for agreement moments draw on Jennifer Sayrs and Marsha Linehan's DBT Teams: Development and Practice (2019), which gives a chapter to the team meeting's structure and agenda, and on Behavioral Tech's guidance on team roles.
This is an optional template from the Sentio MFT program's free DBT toolkit, an original design for you to adapt.
Download the PDFMake a copy in Google Docs
Weekly meeting agenda
- Mindfulness. Open with a short mindfulness practice, often 5 to 10 minutes, led by a member.
- Roles. Name this week's meeting leader, observer and note-taker, one role per person, alongside the team leader.
- Attendance. Note who is present in person or by video, and who is late or absent.
- Agenda items. Each member names their items: the client code, the issue in one line, the kind of help wanted and the minutes needed.
- Order. Rank the items before discussing any of them, then fit the minutes to the meeting. A client's life-threatening behavior comes first; therapy-interfering behavior next, whether the client's or a therapist's own; other clinical questions after that; team business last.
- Discussion. Take the items in order. The member states the issue and the help wanted, the team asks assessment questions before offering solutions, and the note-taker records what the team offered and the follow-up.
- Check-in. Before the meeting ends, the observer asks each member whether they got the help they asked for. Items not reached go on next week's list.
- Follow-ups. The note-taker reads back each follow-up with its owner and date.
Kinds of help: support (the team validates how hard this is), assessment (questions that clarify what is going on), solutions (ideas to try), rehearsal (practicing a response with a teammate), decision (the team needs to agree on something) or information (the team only needs to know).
Meeting notes
Record clients by code only, with no names or identifying details.
| Meeting | Details |
|---|---|
| Date | |
| Meeting length | |
| Members present (in person or by video) | |
| Late or absent | |
| Team leader | |
| Meeting leader | |
| Observer | |
| Note-taker | |
| Mindfulness practice and who led it |
Agenda items in priority order
| Order | Member and client code | Issue | Help asked for | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||
| 2 | ||||
| 3 | ||||
| 4 | ||||
| 5 |
What the team offered
| Order | What the team offered | Follow-up: owner and date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | ||
| 4 | ||
| 5 |
Check-in at the end of the meeting
| Member | Got the help asked for? | Note |
|---|---|---|
Agreement moments
| Where the team polarized, slipped from an agreement or found a synthesis |
|---|
What Does a Completed DBT Consultation Team Agenda Look Like?
The completed notes come from one meeting of an invented team of four. R.N. is the team leader, and C.D., J.O. and P.W. are therapists. Every client is invented and appears by code only; Client 21 is Lena, the client in the toolkit's other examples, on the day after her session 14. The team took a client's suicidal crisis first, Lena's self-harm second, a therapist's own therapy-interfering behavior third and scheduling last.
Meeting notes
| Meeting | Details |
|---|---|
| Date | Wednesday, March 4 |
| Meeting length | 90 minutes |
| Members present (in person or by video) | R.N., C.D. and J.O. in person; P.W. by video |
| Late or absent | None |
| Team leader | R.N. |
| Meeting leader | P.W. |
| Observer | C.D. |
| Note-taker | J.O. |
| Mindfulness practice and who led it | Five minutes of listening to sounds in the room, led by R.N. |
Agenda items in priority order
| Order | Member and client code | Issue | Help asked for | Minutes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | C.D., Client 7 | Life-threatening: suicidal crisis on Saturday after an eviction notice. No self-harm and no attempt. | Assessment, solutions, support | 30 |
| 2 | P.W., Client 21 | Life-threatening: self-harm on Thursday night after criticism at work, without calling for coaching; did not need medical care. Safety and coaching plans updated at Tuesday's session. | Solutions, rehearsal | 25 |
| 3 | J.O., Client 12 | Therapy-interfering, J.O.'s own: three of Client 12's coaching calls returned late this week, one the next morning. | Solutions | 15 |
| 4 | R.N., no client | Team business: next week's meeting falls on the clinic's training day. | Decision | 5 |
What the team offered
| Order | What the team offered | Follow-up: owner and date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Client 7 called for coaching on Saturday and used skills during the call. At Monday's session C.D. assessed risk with the clinic's protocol and reviewed and updated the safety plan with her. The team asked assessment questions first: what the protocol showed, what changed in the safety plan and how committed Client 7 is to it. R.N. and P.W. validated C.D.'s worry about the coming weekend. Suggestions: a chain analysis of Saturday's crisis at Friday's session; a written weekend coaching plan that says when Client 7 will call and which skills she will try first; one planned check-in call from C.D. on Saturday morning. | C.D.: chain analysis and coaching plan at Friday's session. Client 7 goes first on next week's agenda. |
| 2 | P.W. asked what would make calling easier for Client 21 when shame is high, and for help keeping validation and change in balance when it is. Assessment: before calling, Client 21 thinks her therapist will see her as failing, and in Tuesday's session P.W. moved on when her shame showed. Suggestions: have Client 21 send the new coaching text once during session 15 as practice; when shame about asking for help shows up in the room, name it and stay with it for a few more exchanges. Rehearsal: R.N. played Client 21 for three rounds, saying “Can we not do this part?”, while P.W. practiced naming the shame and keeping the topic of calling in the room, with feedback after each round. R.N. made the third round harder by going quiet. | P.W.: practice text and in-session work at session 15. Report next week. |
| 3 | The team thanked J.O. for naming it. Assessment: the calls came in during back-to-back sessions, J.O. had never told Client 12 when calls get returned, and J.O. has felt worn down by a full caseload. Suggestions: tell Client 12 when calls are returned and how quickly; check messages after each session; repair with Client 12 at the next session. R.N. offered to look at J.O.'s caseload together this week. | J.O.: talk with Client 12 at Tuesday's session and report next week. R.N.: caseload review with J.O. by Friday. |
| 4 | The team agreed to meet on Thursday next week at the usual time. | R.N.: send the calendar change today. |
Check-in at the end of the meeting
| Member | Got the help asked for? | Note |
|---|---|---|
| C.D. | Yes | Steadier about the weekend. Client 7 goes first next week. |
| P.W. | Yes | Wants two more rounds next week, starting with the harder version. |
| J.O. | Yes | Has a plan for returning calls and a time with R.N. to look at caseload. |
| R.N. | Yes | Meeting moved. |
Agreement moments
| Where the team polarized, slipped from an agreement or found a synthesis |
|---|
| Item 1: members split between asking C.D. to call Client 7 every evening and respecting C.D.'s limits. The synthesis was one planned call on Saturday morning plus the coaching plan (dialectical and observing-limits agreements). |
| Item 3: members began suggesting fixes before asking questions. R.N. named it, and the team went back to assessment (assess before offering solutions). |
What Is a DBT Consultation Team For?
A DBT consultation team is therapy for the therapists. It backs up clinicians who treat people with severe and complex disorders and keeps them motivated and skilled enough to give their best treatment. The team is one of the four modes of standard DBT, alongside individual therapy, the skills training group and phone coaching between sessions, and it serves the function of enhancing the therapists' capability and motivation. Sayrs and Linehan (2019) describe it as a community of therapists treating a community of clients, with the provider as its focus.
The team meets weekly. Linehan's skills training manual sets the minimum at two people, meeting in person when they work in the same area and by video otherwise, and her own clinic's team meets for 1 to 1.5 hours. Members are the individual therapists and skills group leaders who share responsibility for each client's care. They join voluntarily, agree to attend, commit to learning and applying DBT, and stay equally open to the team's influence.
What Are the DBT Consultation Team Agreements?
The team agreements are commitments about how members treat clients and one another. Linehan (1993) set out six core agreements, and Sayrs and Linehan (2019) restate them:
- Dialectical agreement. No one holds the absolute truth, so when the team polarizes, members look for a synthesis, and strong opinions remain welcome.
- Consultation-to-the-client agreement. Members coach clients to deal with their other providers, teammates included, and step in on a client's behalf only when that is the effective choice.
- Consistency agreement. Members need not be consistent with one another, because mix-ups are normal and give clients and members a chance to practice skills.
- Observing-limits agreement. Each member keeps to their own personal and professional limits, and teammates ask only whether a colleague's limit is effective.
- Phenomenological empathy agreement. Members look for empathic, nonpejorative readings of clients' behavior, assuming that clients are doing their best and want to improve.
- Fallibility agreement. Every member is fallible and will break the agreements at times, so there is little need for defensiveness.
Linehan (1993) called the second one the consultation-to-the-patient agreement, and it still leaves members free to plan treatment together and share information. Sayrs and Linehan add twelve further agreements. Among them, members provide therapy for the therapist; deliver DBT without mixing in other models; attend weekly, on time and prepared; speak in every meeting; share the meeting leader and observer roles; name the elephant in the room; stay one-mindful in the meeting; and assess before offering solutions. The notes form puts the agreements to work in its last box, where the note-taker records moments when the team polarized, slipped from an agreement or found a synthesis.
What Roles Does a DBT Consultation Team Use, and How Is the Agenda Ordered?
Most teams use three roles: team leader, meeting leader and observer. Some teams create more. Behavioral Tech treats meeting leader, observer and note-taker as required roles and notes that holding two roles at the same time is hard, so the form gives each role its own line and its own person. One Behavioral Tech author suggests that the observer track each member's target and goal, which supports a check-in at the end of the meeting, and the form's check-in step builds on that suggestion.
Team meetings run on an agenda, and Sayrs and Linehan give a chapter to the structure of the meeting and its agenda, including time management and prioritization. The form ranks items with the logic of the stage 1 target hierarchy for individual therapy, which puts life-threatening behaviors first, therapy-interfering behaviors second, quality-of-life-interfering behaviors third and increasing behavioral skills fourth. In DBT, therapy-interfering behavior can come from the client, the therapist or both, so the form places a therapist's own late replies to coaching calls right after a client at risk. Team business such as scheduling comes last.
Behavioral Tech lists behavioral rehearsal among the activities that suit a team meeting, along with case conceptualization, suicide risk assessment, chain analysis and validation. For that reason rehearsal is one of the kinds of help a member can ask for, and the toolkit's practice set supplies new client statements to rehearse with.
Practice DBT Skills as a Team
Sentio's free Deliberate Practice in DBT training has a full webinar with Tali Boritz and Shelley McMain in dialogue with Tony Rousmaniere and Alexandre Vaz. Its skill targets include fitting DBT skill-building into supervision or a consultation team, and the unedited recording, free to share, is designed to pair with a supervisor, a peer or a team. A team can watch one section together, then rehearse with the toolkit's practice set.
Keep reading
DBT Recording Review Form and Practice Set, a form that turns a short segment of a recorded session into one skill to rehearse, with new client statements for practice
DBT Progress Note Template, a session note organized by the target hierarchy, with a completed example
DBT Target Hierarchy, the order of stage 1 targets, from life-threatening behavior to behavioral skills
Free DBT Toolkit, every template in the series, each with a completed example
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the purpose of a DBT consultation team?
A DBT consultation team is therapy for the therapists: it backs up clinicians who treat people with severe and complex disorders and keeps them motivated and skilled enough to give their best treatment. It is one of the four modes of standard DBT, with individual therapy, the skills group and phone coaching, and it serves the function of enhancing therapist capability and motivation.
What are the DBT consultation team agreements?
The DBT consultation team agreements are six core agreements that Linehan set out in 1993: dialectical, consultation to the patient (which Sayrs and Linehan call consultation to the client), consistency, observing limits, phenomenological empathy and fallibility. Sayrs and Linehan's DBT Teams (2019) adds twelve further agreements, among them attending weekly, on time and prepared, speaking in every meeting, sharing the meeting leader and observer roles, and assessing before offering solutions.
Who holds the observer role on a DBT consultation team?
The observer holds one of the three roles most DBT teams use, alongside the team leader and the meeting leader. Sayrs and Linehan count sharing the meeting leader and observer roles among the team agreements, so the role passes from member to member. In a post on virtual teams, Behavioral Tech author Ronda Reitz suggests that the observer could track each member's target and goal for a brief check-in at the end.
What roles does a DBT consultation team need?
Most DBT teams use a team leader, a meeting leader and an observer, and some create additional roles, according to Sayrs and Linehan (2019). Behavioral Tech names meeting leader, observer and note-taker as required roles and notes that holding two roles at the same time is hard. The toolkit's notes form has a line for each of the four roles, filled in at the start of every meeting.
How often does a DBT consultation team meet, and how big is it?
A DBT consultation team meets weekly. Linehan's skills training manual sets the minimum at two people, meeting in person when they work in the same area and by video otherwise, and her own clinic's team meets for 1 to 1.5 hours. Behavioral Tech describes teams as typically having 3 to 8 members, drawn from the individual therapists and skills group leaders who share responsibility for each client's care.
Can a therapist bring their own therapy-interfering behavior to the team?
Yes. In DBT, therapy-interfering behavior can come from the client, the therapist or both, and Koerner (2012) gives therapist examples such as being late for appointments, not returning calls and feeling demoralized about therapy. The toolkit's agenda ranks a therapist's own therapy-interfering behavior right after a client's life-threatening behavior, and the fallibility agreement leaves little need for defensiveness when a member names it.
References
Behavioral Tech Institute. (n.d.). Consultation team. Retrieved November 9, 2026, from https://behavioraltech.org/?p=71072
Koerner, K. (2012). Doing dialectical behavior therapy: A practical guide. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-4625-0232-5. https://www.guilford.com/books/Doing-Dialectical-Behavior-Therapy/Kelly-Koerner/9781462502325
Linehan, M. M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-0-89862-183-9. https://www.guilford.com/books/Cognitive-Behavioral-Treatment-of-Borderline-Personality-Disorder/Marsha-Linehan/9780898621839
Linehan, M. M. (2025). DBT skills training manual (Rev. ed.). Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-4625-5635-9. https://www.guilford.com/books/DBT-Skills-Training-Manual/Marsha-Linehan/9781462556359
Reitz, R. O. (2021, April 12). Presence and vulnerability: Team in a virtual world (Part 1). Behavioral Tech Institute. https://behavioraltech.org/?p=62052
Sayrs, J. H. R., & Linehan, M. M. (2019). DBT teams: Development and practice. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-4625-3981-9. https://www.guilford.com/books/DBT-Teams/Sayrs-Linehan/9781462539819
University of Washington Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics. (n.d.). Dialectical behavior therapy. Retrieved November 9, 2026, from https://depts.washington.edu/uwbrtc/about-us/dialectical-behavior-therapy/
About This Template
Corrections and suggestions: mabundez@sentio.org.
