Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) has quickly become a treatment of choice for individuals with borderline personality disorder and other complicated psychiatric conditions. Becoming proficient in standard DBT requires intensive training and extensive supervised experience. However, there are many DBT principles and procedures that can be readily adapted for therapists conducting supportive, psychodynamic, and even other forms of cognitive behavioral treatments.Despite this, there is a dearth of easily accessible reading material for the busy clinician or novice.
This new book provides a clinically oriented, user-friendly guide to understanding and utilizing the principles and techniques of DBT for non-DBT-trained mental health practitioners and is an ideal guide to DBT for clinicians at all levels of experience.
Written by internationally recognized experts in suicide, self injury and borderline personality disorder, it features clinical vignettes, following patients through a series of chapters, clearly illustrating both the therapeutic principles and interventions.

About the Authors ix
Foreword xi
Acknowledgments xiii
1 Introduction 3
Part I Theoretical, research, and clinical foundations 13
2 When DBT is indicated: The patients, the clinicians, and the evidence 15
3 BPD: Treatable or untreatable? 27
4 BPD: Diagnosis, stigma, and phenomenology 33
5 Understanding and treating self-harm behaviors in BPD 45
6 The ABC's of DBT - the theoretical perspective 63
7 The ABC's of DBT - overview of the treatment 75
Part II Using DBT in clinical practice 83
8 Commitment and goal setting 85
9 The DBT tool kit: The essential DBT strategies and what happens in the individual session 101
10 Skills training: The rationale and structure 125
11 Skills training: The four skill modules 135
12 Between-session contact and observing limits 153
13 Management of suicidal behavior 177
14 The Safety Planning Intervention 185
15 The three C's of consultation 193
16 DBT case formulation 205
17 Beyond Target 1 - Therapy and "quality of life" interfering behaviors 221
18 The end of treatment 239
Index 245