Chats with Trainers: Engaging Line Staff in DBT

Nicole Kletzka, PhD

Ann Arbor, MI (United States) Nicole Taylor Kletzka PhD, DBT-LBC, is the DBT Director for the State Hospital Administration in Michigan, and a Consulting Forensic Examiner for the State of Michigan. She is responsible for developing and ensuring DBT model adherence and sustainability for comprehensive DBT programs within Michigan’s state hospital system. Nicole developed a DBT program at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry in 2010 which has served over 1000 patients. She has developed a staff mentor and cross-site unit staff coaching program, as well as a DBT student training program. Dr. Kletzka completed the DBT Linehan Board of Certification process in 2015 and joined Behavioral Tech as a contractual DBT trainer and consultant in 2016. She specializes in working with inpatients, system implementations, and forensic populations. She has expertise in DBT for patients with intellectual disabilities and in trauma-informed treatment. She has developed and implemented an adapted DBT model called DBT for All Learning Styles (DBT-FALS) for treating individuals who struggle to learn due to psychosis, intellectual disability or other problems encountered in individuals with severe mental illness. Dr. Kletzka previously worked at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego with child trauma victims and has been an affiliate member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network for over a decade. She co-coordinates the Michigan State Hospitals’ Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) team. She has published and presented in multiple venues on DBT in forensic settings, suicide, staff burnout, trauma, objective and performance-based personality assessment, and treatment outcomes.