Marsha Linehan, an introduction to her life and work: Home

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In this remarkable and inspiring memoir, Linehan describes how, when she was eighteen years old, she began an abrupt downward spiral from popular teenager to suicidal young woman. After several miserable years in a psychiatric institute, Linehan made a vow that if she could get out of emotional hell, she would try to find a way to help others get out of hell too, and to build a life worth living. She went on to put herself through night school and college, living at a YWCA and often scraping together spare change to buy food. She went on to get her PhD in psychology, specializing in behavior therapy. In the 1980s, she achieved a breakthrough when she developed Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, a therapeutic approach that combines acceptance of the self and ways to change. Linehan included mindfulness as a key component in therapy treatment, along with original and specific life-skill techniques. She says, "You can't think yourself into new ways of acting; you can only act yourself into new ways of thinking."--provided by publisher.

This volume, co-edited by Marsha Linehan, contains essays discussing by a number of practitioners in both DBT and CBT, and so is an excellent resource for learning the theoretical overlap between the two approaches.

This is a wonderful resource for counselors looking to incorporate acceptance and commitment therapy in professional practice. Full of practical wisdom, this book teaches therapists how to incorporate some of the foundational principles of DBT, particularly, Linehan's "radical acceptance."

"For the average clinician, clinic, or inpatient facility, individuals with borderline personality disorder often represent the most difficult and insoluble cases. The first volume to provide strategies proven effective in controlled clinical trials, this book is a comprehensive, integrated approach to therapy with this population. Marsha M. Linehan presents specific guidelines that creatively combine the best elements of behavioral, psychoanalytic, strategic, and other commonly employed modalities. A clinical innovator, she has analyzed the aspects of borderline disorder into their component parts and developed a systematized approach to each of them. The first section of the book presents an overview of the disorder and lays out a theoretical framework to guide the therapy. The second describes in detail how to assess borderline patients and how to organize and prioritize treatment goals and behavioral targets. The core of the treatment is the balance of acceptance and change strategies, both within each therapy interaction and over time. For problem solving with borderline personality disorder, the book provides specific strategies for contingency management, exposure, cognitive modification, and skill training. The last component is further elucidated in the companion Skills Training Manual, which programmatically details procedures and includes client handouts for step-by-step implementation. Finally, to enhance interpersonal communication, Dr. Linehan presents three case management sets: consultation to the patient, environmental intervention, and consultation to the therapist. Addressing the most stressful patient behaviors that clinicians encounter, the book includes a step-by-step outline for assessing suicide risk, managing suicide threats, and working with chronic suicidal behavior. Integrative approaches for such specific problems as crises, noncompliance, and breakdowns in the therapeutic relationship are also discussed. Lucidly detailing effective techniques that can be replicated in clinical practice, this volume illuminates the internal experience of borderline individuals and provides clinicians with practical clinical tools for working with them. As such, it is an invaluable resource for all professionals who work with this difficult-to-treat population." --back cover.

"From Marsha M. Linehan--the developer of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)--this comprehensive resource provides vital tools for implementing DBT skills training. The teaching notes and reproducible handouts and worksheets used for over two decades by hundreds of thousands of practitioners have been significantly revised and expanded to reflect important research and clinical advances. The book gives complete instructions for orienting individuals with a wide range of problems to DBT and teaching them mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance skills. Handouts and worksheets are not included in the book; purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print all the handouts and worksheets discussed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size"--provided by publisher.

Dialectical behavior therapy is a famously "homework" intensive treatment method, requiring that patients practice the skills they learn in one-on-one counseling and group therapy during the week and report back on their progress to their therapist. This volume, which contains more than two-hundred worksheets and exercises, is an invaluable practical resource for any therapist seeking to implement a treatment program based on dialectical behavior therapy. Serves as a companion volume to "DBT Skills Training Manual."

"Filling a tremendous need, this highly practical book adapts the proven techniques of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) to treatment of multiproblem adolescents at highest risk for suicidal behavior and self-injury. The authors are master clinicians who take the reader step by step through understanding and assessing severe emotional dysregulation in teens and implementing individual, family, and group-based interventions. Insightful guidance on everything from orientation to termination is enlivened by case illustrations and sample dialogues. Appendices feature 30 mindfulness exercises as well as lecture notes and 12 reproducible handouts for "Walking the Middle Path," a DBT skills training module for adolescents and their families. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print these handouts and several other tools from the book in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size."--provided by publisher.

"The treatment team is an essential component of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). This much-needed resource from Jennifer H. R. Sayrs and DBT originator Marsha M. Linehan explains how DBT teams work, ways in which they differ from traditional consultation teams, and how to establish an effective team culture. The book addresses the role of the DBT team leader; the structure of meetings; the use of DBT strategies within teams; identifying and resolving common team problems; and important functions before, during, and after suicide crises. User-friendly features include end-of-chapter exercises and reproducible handouts and forms. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials in a convenient 8 1/2'x 11'size."