DBT Skills Jeopardy

A skills-review game for DBT skills group. The four skills modules plus real-life scenarios, with Walking the Middle Path as an optional sixth category. Every new board draws a fresh mix of clues from a larger pool, so it can be played again and again. Click a dollar value to open the clue; teams answer in the form of a question.

How to run it

Hosts read the clue aloud; teams answer in the form of a question. Press T to start the 30-second think timer (with music), Space to reveal, award points with the team buttons, then Esc to close. Two random tiles are hidden Daily Doubles. “New board” reshuffles the clues.

Curriculum settings

Adult draws only from the standard adult skills curriculum (Linehan). Adolescent & family adds skills and scenarios from the DBT-A manual (Rathus & Miller), including THINK and the family dialectical dilemmas. Middle Path adds Walking the Middle Path (dialectics, validation, behavior change) as a sixth category; it is on by default for adolescent groups and off for adult groups.

Content

Clues follow the skills, acronyms, and handout names in Linehan's DBT Skills Training Manual. Handout numbers in the leader notes refer to the 2nd edition (2015); skill names are unchanged in the 2025 Revised Edition. The think-timer music is an original tune, not the broadcast theme. Notes under each answer give the group leader a teaching point to expand on.

Source

Prepared by the Stony Brook DBT Program, Mind-Body Clinical Research Center, as a thank-you to clinicians who completed the DBT phone coaching survey. Free to use and adapt in your program. Not affiliated with Jeopardy Productions or Behavioral Tech.

References

  1. Linehan, M. M. (1993). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder. Guilford Press.
  2. Linehan, M. M. (1993). Skills training manual for treating borderline personality disorder. Guilford Press.
  3. Linehan, M. M. (2015). DBT skills training manual (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
  4. Linehan, M. M. (2015). DBT skills training handouts and worksheets (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
  5. Linehan, M. M. (2025). DBT skills training manual (Rev. ed.). Guilford Press.
  6. Linehan, M. M. (2025). DBT skills training handouts and worksheets (Rev. ed.). Guilford Press.
  7. Rathus, J. H., & Miller, A. L. (2015). DBT skills manual for adolescents. Guilford Press. (Source of the THINK skill, the family dialectical dilemmas, and the adolescent Walking the Middle Path module.)
  8. Miller, A. L., Rathus, J. H., & Linehan, M. M. (2007). Dialectical behavior therapy with suicidal adolescents. Guilford Press.