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Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder

Customer Rating:
An excellent companion manual to the textbook "Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder", Dr. Linehan brilliantly outlines the skills that all DBT Skills Trainers need to steer their clients towards: Mindfulness, Emotion Regulation, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Distress Tolerance, and the concept of Radical Acceptance is worth mentioning as well. Detailed strategies for the DBT therapist or skills trainer to deal with life-threatening and therapy-interfering behaviors of the client are precious concepts for the skills trainer to have and can go a long way towards preventing therapist burnout.

Recommended with reservations

Customer Rating:
I'm a Mental Health Counselor whose copy of this book is well worn. I recommend this book for anyone who is considering doing skills training for persons with problems in the following areas:
1) Problems related to control of attention. This could include anything from difficulty concentrating to dissociative behavior.
2) Problems with balance in relationships. Usually this involves teaching clients how to get other people to take them seriously. It can also involve teaching clients how to consider other people's needs in relationships. Often it's both.
3) Problems with severe painful emotions.
4) Problems with impulse control.

Many clients decide to get their own copy. This is like getting every student in the class the teacher's version of the text book. Much of the material in book addresses therapist problems rather than client problems. I don't recommend this book for clients unless they have the interest to study where their therapist is coming from. There's no harm in it, but for most clients they would be better off with self-help materials written with client interests in mind.

Excellent book for DBT skills!

Customer Rating:
Both of my children are in DBT groups and this book is excellent! They have benefitted much from using this book! Thanks!

True Believer is a Patient

Customer Rating:
And that's me. I've been taking a class/group for months on the practices of Dr. Linehan. Of course, this was taught by an awesome doctor and an advanced degree student (who is definately going to make the world a much happier place). All of this combined, this workbook (which the class works out of) is happily, lifechanging. After almost 5 years of suffering with PTSD and depression suffered from injuries in a car accident, only these past few months working through this theory, I feel like my life is coming back now. My family is happier, my life is happier, I am happier. Find a therapist who CAN work with you through this theory and most everyone will benefit with a more positive and happier YOU! Good luck! It works!

not a useful book

Customer Rating:
I was asked to get this book by my therapist for use in my therapy. I think that this book does more harm then good. While the homework sheets could perhaps be useful, the overall book is written for the therapist. While most training manuals need to be written dispassionately and for general use. This book, frankly, lacks humanity. It generalizes about people with BPD to the extreme, allowing for no middle ground. I also find the large title to be violating of my privacy.