"Managing Powerful Emotions is a 12-week (90-minute) skill-building group offered to individuals who have significant challenges with tolerating their distress and regulating emotions and behaviour. Participants learn specific strategies to help tolerate emotional crises and intense emotions; including, examining the pros and cons of acting impulsively and engaging in destructive behaviour. MPE teaches participants to use practical tools to understand their feelings and exercise control over emotional outbursts that create significant and ongoing difficulties in their lives.

Weeks 1 to 6 cover the distress tolerance material and include concepts such as accepting reality, willfulness versus willingness, and crisis survival skills. Weeks 7 to 12 teach emotion regulation concepts and tools: participants learn to identify and/or label their emotions, understand the purpose of their emotions, recognize what activates their emotions, and how to use skills to gain control over emotional outbursts.

In order to successfully complete the MPE group, participants must attend at least 9 out of 12 sessions, actively participate in the group, complete worksheets weekly, and use the skills and tools in their day-to-day life. If these requirements are met, they can then be considered for additional DBT-informed skill-building groups: Mindfulness and People Skills. Participants are welcome to repeat the MPE group."