Resources
Common Cancer Concerns
A sample worksheet from the patient curriculum that provides an overview of many of the issues addressed therein. This checklist validates patients’ experiences by helping those with cancer realize they share their concerns with others, and that they are not alone in their thoughts and feelings. The checklist also represents the topics covered in the training for professionals.
FAQs — Frequently Asked Questions
Video—Effective ways to manage cancer-related anxiety
FAQs
Do clinicians need formal DBT training to use these skills?
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No. This curriculum focuses on a targeted subset of DBT skills relevant to anxiety, grief, communication challenges, and emotional overwhelm. The skills are practical and modular, designed to fit naturally within many clinical frameworks — whether your background is in cognitive behavior therapy, psychodynamic work, social work, oncology nursing, or another discipline — and can be integrated into individual sessions, group work, or family conversations.
That said, this training is intentionally focused in scope. It is not designed to equip clinicians to manage patients presenting with suicidal ideation, self-harm, or other high-risk behaviors. Patients with these presentations require comprehensive DBT assessment and treatment by clinicians with specialized training, and should be referred accordingly.
What are the core DBT skills used in this work?
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This curriculum is built around three essential building blocks of DBT.
Mindfulness — paying attention to the present moment without judgment, including difficulties such as illness and uncertainty. This practice helps patients reduce anxiety, minimize rumination, improve sleep, and stay connected to moments of meaning and joy rather than being pulled into regret about the past or dread about the future.
Dialectical thinking — the idea that two seemingly contradictory things can both be true — gives patients permission to feel frightened and hopeful, to grieve their diagnosis and still find happiness elsewhere. It also supports self-compassion: I'm coping the best I can right now — and I can learn new ways to cope.
Validation — the recognition that a person's feelings and responses make sense given their circumstances — works on three levels. Self-validation quiets the inner critic and builds trust in one's own perceptions. Receiving validation from others creates a felt sense of being truly heard and understood. And offering validation to patients — communicating that their experience is real — deepens connection, builds therapeutic trust, and creates the safety that allows honest conversation to happen.
A clinician's personal understanding of these skills helps them teach more genuinely.