Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder [Paperback]

Marsha M. Linehan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 21, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0898620341 | ISBN-13: 978-0898620344 | Edition: 1

This book is a step-by-step guide to teaching clients four sets of skills: interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and mindfulness. A vital component in Dr. Linehan’s comprehensive treatment program, the manual details precisely how to implement DBT behavioral skills training procedures. It provides everything the clinician needs to implement the program in skills training groups or with individual clients. Included are lecture notes, discussion questions, exercises, and practical advice on dealing with frequently encountered problems. In a large-size format with lay-flat binding for easy photocopying, the book features over three dozen reproducible client handouts and homework sheets.

See also Linehan's comprehensive presentation of DBT, Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Also available: instructive skills training videos for clients--Crisis Survival Skills, Part One, Crisis Survival Skills, Part Two, From Suffering to Freedom, This One Moment, and Opposite Action.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Marsha Linehan's tremendously in-depth and informative book and its companion skills-training manual offer a needed guide to the cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder....Her method has become so widely used by clinicians that the experts in psychosocial treatments consider it one of the best....Marsha Linehan's methods are highly eclectic because they are empirically based; they have been fashioned to fit what works best for borderline patients."--Lester Luborsky, PhD

"Dr. Linehan's approach is sensible, pragmatic, and effective. Most importantly, it offers the therapist a humane and sensitive perspective on persons with Borderline Personality Disorder. In short, it treats both the therapist and the client in a fashion that produces results."--Mark Ciocca, PhD, Central New Hampshire Community Mental Health Center

"...user-friendly manual well grounded in principle, detailed in its strategies, and exportable to a wide range of treatment settings."--Charles R. Swenson, MD, New York Hospital, Westchester Division

About the Author

Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP, is Professor of Psychology and Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington and Director of the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics, a consortium of research projects developing new treatments and evaluating their efficacy for persons with severe mental disorders and multiple diagnoses. Her primary research is in the application of behavioral models to suicidal behaviors, drug abuse, and borderline personality disorder. Dr. Linehan is the recipient of the 2012 American Psychological Foundation (APF) Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (May 21, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898620341
• ISBN-13: 978-0898620344
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.4 x 11 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Medical Books > Psychology > Psychotherapy, TA & NLP
  • #5 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Personality Disorders
  • #5 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Social Work

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

252 of 262 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars DBT was designed for people with BPD! March 19, 2005

A Kid's Review

Format:Paperback

In tweleve-step groups they usually say something like "take what you need and leave the rest." I would suggest that non-borderline clients and the practitioners who help them follow that advice with this book. There is no need to erase us from the title of this book so that non-BPDs will feel less shame buying or using it. And there is no need to judge the exercises and handouts as overly simplistic. They are what they are. They were designed to help us (borderlines).

If you are not borderline, and do not have experience working with borderlines, you really don't know what we need. Marsha Linehan does. I'm not claiming that every example or every exercise in the book works for every borderline, but M.L. does not claim that either!

Many borderlines (including myself) were traumatized in early childhood and failed to learn basic skills at that age. Therefore, exercises that to the non-BPD sufferer seem designed for children, were actually designed for people who never had the chance to experience a normal childhood and learn the social skills that others learned as children.

I do agree with the reviewers who say that much of DBT is helpful for people with other diagnoses, and even people who are not mentall ill, but this manual is for US, and does not need to be changed. Those who are not a part of the target audience should use what they can, and leave the rest - without judgement.

Those practitioners who see the applicability of DBT to non-borderline patients should take the time to figure out what works and write new books with new therapies, based on DBT. That is what Marsha Linehan did. She took CBT as a framework and developed DBT for a specific population - people who suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder.

For me, the DBT program that I attend, which uses this book as a handbook, has been invaluable. I needed this training. When I started DBT 5 months ago, while I did not feel suicidal, I felt that my self-destructive behaviors were eventually going to lead to my premature death. I had a term for this. I called myself "terminally incompetent" even though I have a high IQ, an advanced degree, etc. I just meant that eventually, my inability to simply get along in the world was going to kill me. I have felt this way all of my life, and I've been describing myself using that term for years, even though I had 10 years of therapy before this program. Now I still have ups and downs, and I still need many more years of therapy, but I know I'm going to make it.

Thank you, Marsha Linehan, and thank you Transitional Day Treatment Program at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital (NYC).

109 of 112 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book....for anyone July 11, 2002

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I'm a psychology intern and we use this manual for multiple disorders, not just BPD. The skills, as others have suggested are essential to living a healthy, happy life, regardless of one's 'problems.' While most modern day psychotherapeutic techniques preach change, Linehan's work centers on centering. Acceptance balanced with change. Emotion balanced with logic. It's a wonderful new perspective on treating psychological disorders. And as an added bonus, in the age of managed care, it's one of the few treatments rooted in a humanistic understanding that will be readily reimbursed by HMO's. As both a therapist and a consumer of psychological literature, this work stands as one of the most helpful available. Well worth the money. And you can make copies of the handouts WITHOUT worrying about copyright infringement because the author has graciously given permission to do so. Linehan is really an asset to the psychological community.

101 of 106 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book to Deal with Borderline Personality Disorder May 27, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I suffer from borderline personality disorder, and the content of this book has been a great help when dealing with my emotional disability. I love this book because it focuses on "treating" the disorder, whereas other books' focuses are often the cause of the disorder or pathology of it. The positive attitude of facing the real issues of those who suffer from borderline personality disorder is encouraging. I can see the author's deep understanding of the disorder, and I appreciate her efforts to explain what the probrems really are and how to deal with them.