Second Edition, DBT® Skills Training Manual

the store should not allow publishers to market PDF galleys of their books as e-books. The lines of text in this book does NOT reformat themsleves to fit on mobile screens, so you have to scroll back and forth horizontally to read every line. Useless, ridiculous. It's not an e-book, it's basically just pictures of a print book. I want a refund.

This is an instruction manual for conducting DBT skills training intended for leaders of groups in therapy sessions. It is without doubt the monumental work of a lifetime. But it is not a self study guide or a text book on DBT content or applications. DBT is taught by the use of a series of several hundred handouts and worksheets containing the information in four modules titled, Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotional Regulation and Distress Tolerance. The handouts and worksheets are not in this book. They are available on line for purchasers and in a separate spiral bound book for sale.
DBT was developed over many years at the University of Washington by Dr. Marsha Linehan and her department staff, and students for therapy with clients classified with borderline personality disorder. It is heavily based on her practice of Zen Buddhism although she avoids that reference in order to keep out the obvious religious implications. For a more concise and simplified discussion read When Things Fall Apart by Perma Chodran. The personal comments she includes here from her clinical experience are as valuable as the instructions to leaders. She admits that she stole much of the materials from her vast reading and research as evidenced by the lengthy list of references appended to each module section. Unfortunately, it can all be overwhelming for the suffering average reader looking for help. It requires several readings and disciplined practice to implement all the skills in various situations, which could take a long time to master.
Since its first publication in 1993 DBT has become a popular cult classic form of therapy applied to many other personality disorders with more or less documented success. However, after working the system for a year in therapy I find that it is a hammer that sees everything as a nail. That is my complaint. The marginal success in mental health that has been reported could all be explained with the placebo effect. Plus, it is less like therapy and more like a college class in human relations or basic humanist psychology heavily influenced by Buddhism which is useful and to be recommended but not necessarily suitable for treating all mental suffering as some are suggesting. In fact, Linehan says that anyone who practices the skills can be a skills trainer without any advanced degrees. Thus results may be determined as much by the relationship between client and therapist as the material content. This relationship is driven by the PEAA formula, praise, empathy, attention, and approval.
The teaching mode using handouts and worksheets is very tedious and by her own definition is a shot gun approach that needs to be carefully selected for the problems presented by suffering clients in groups. The wide variety of issues facing suffering people in groups makes this goal all but impossible. Clients in trouble are unqualified to do this selection and thus a most important and necessary foundation for learning is missing. After my year in training with LCSW trainers. it is like somebody threw a pile of jig saw puzzle pieces on the table for me to assemble without the picture on the box - which is not helping my major depression. Further, it rests on mindfulness meditation in the here and now without judging anything as right or wrong, good or bad...and everything has a cause so it must all be inevitable and necessary...and thus merits radical acceptance...again from Buddhism...which completes the circular reasoning that defeats the whole thing. So while the present volume is a comprehensive manual for leaders conducting the DBT skills training classes - ...it is not the final solution in therapy. It really is a course in Zen Buddhism disguised as a complex form of clinical treatment and as such leaves something to be desired.

Unfortunately, I should have researched it more before buying as it is more relevant for groups and I was looking for something for individual therapy. But I am keeping it nevertheless for the future. Who knows I may be running groups sometime.

Amazing! So thorough. Well worth the wait. It is well written. Full of so much research and examples for explaining skills to others. I love that there are check marks to highlight what are the important teaching points if you are limited on time. I am learning so much as I work thru the manual. Great improvement from the original manual. Love that worksheets are available online which makes it easier to print pages.

This manual is filled with quite a depth of knowledge and application. However, I bought it to be able to PRINT the worksheets/handouts rather than having to make copies for clients. It "would have been" a timesaver if the web address actually worked as described in the description. Instead, I have to admit I am disappointed since I am unable to! Please update the website to actually work as described (handouts/worksheets can be printed).

This manual is ABSOLUTELY NOT written for laypeople. I can read at the professional level in this genre but because my interest is personal and I have no intentions of creating a program or teaching clients, I found it not to be a good match for me (even though it's an the store bestseller, and shown paired with DBT handouts spiral book). I am letting it go and searching anew for more srlf-help oriented versions of DBT material.

My 3 star rating is therefore i tended to be neutral.