The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook by Matthew McKay, Jeffrey C. Wood, and Jeffrey Brantley is a self-help workbook that covers the major skills involved in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).
DBT is considered the gold standard for the treatment of borderline personality disorder, but its usefulness is not limited to people with BPD. DBT is very skills-based, and many of the skills are quite broadly applicable.
The introduction of this book indicates that it’s written both for people who are already doing DBT as well as people with no background in DBT but are struggling with overwhelming emotions. For people who are familiar with DBT, you’ll notice that this book doesn’t make a lot of use of the common acronyms for groups of skills; for example, while ABC PLEASE is described, that acronym isn’t used.
The book takes a very matter of fact tone, and provides clear explanations. It is very much a workbook, with written exercises interspersed frequently throughout. The worksheets are laid out simply and easy to follow, with lots of thought-provoking questions.
The book is divided into four sections based on the major DBT modules: distress tolerance, mindfulness, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Each section is further divided into basic and advanced skills.
For each strategy, multiple different ideas are suggested for implementation, so even if some ideas don’t work for you there are plenty of others to try.
Some highlights of what’s covered:
- pleasurable distractions (with a 2-page list of over 100 suggestions)
- self-soothing for each of the senses
- radical acceptance and nonjudgmental attitude
- describing and facing emotions, plus explanations regarding how emotions work
- wise mind
- how maladaptive behaviors (like cutting) can get reinforced because of short-term rewards
- opposite action (whatever your emotional urge is telling you to do, do the opposite)
- effective interpersonal communication skills
- using assertiveness scripts
- saying no
The book also talks about coping thoughts and self-affirming statements, and these are realistic – there’s no delving into rainbows and unicorns territory.
While people with borderline personality disorder would likely get the most benefit from doing formal DBT, DBT in self-help form could have a lot to offer for people with other diagnoses struggling with their emotions. This workbook offers clear explanations and plenty of exercises for the reader to do, so I think it would be suitable for people with no knowledge of DBT.
The tone of the writing is not especially engaging, but it’s neutral and non-judgmental, even when talking about fairly charged topics like manipulative behavior.
Overall, I would say this book is a good choice if you want to give DBT a try.
The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook is available on Amazon.
You can find my other book reviews here.
The MH@H Store has a mini e-book on DBT Skills for Mood Disorders. It’s also available as part of the Therapy Mini-Ebook Collection.
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I love the concept of pleasurable distractions! I’m a big believer in watching sitcoms to stay upbeat and in touch with, like, the absurdities of life, so I hope they’re on the list!
I also love the concept of articulating emotions! It can be harder than you’d think! I always try to do it, and I come up with simple emotions, like sad, mad, happy, etc. I have to try harder to be any more articulate than that!
Sounds like a useful book!! I’m glad this therapy exists!!
We could all use a regular dose of the absurdities of life!
This is my go-to workbook that I use with my clients. Love the sections on radical acceptance and the big list of pleasurable activities.
Yeah it’s a good one.
Thanks for sharing! I got the bipolar disorder version of this book. Definitely found parts of it helpful! I can easily see how such skills can help many people (not just those with BPD).
Absolutely.
I totally have and use this book. I’ve brought up some things to my therapist that I think are complete bs, so we skip those. Haha
I think the beauty of DBT covering so many skills is that it works just fine to leave out the ones that don’t fit.
That’s just it. It pretty much offers something for everyone
I agree.
Very neutral tone in this book. Very skills-oriented. A new PTSD version came out last year. One of our Ts is test-driving it for us. The book as reviewed has some benefit for us, and it lacks life-connecting energy. It’s hard to “to-do list” us to safety and healing. Still, it’s more likely to help some than hurt at all. We used it last week. And then put it at the bottom of the resource pile again.
Do you use it?
I haven’t actually used it in the sense of using it as a workbook. But a lot of DBT skills are pretty broadly applicable for anyone.
We wonder if you’d dislike nonviolent Communication. It’s interesting because its creator (marshall Rosenberg) rails against “New age bullshit,” and NVC can seem “out there” because its goals are so lofty. He’s very human, though. In ways DBT is not for us
I don’t know much about nonviolent communication, although looking at the 4-part NVC process I see a fair bit of overlap with things that are covered in DBT.
I love this workbook! This is the one J and I went through together. It has so many helpful strategies and breaks everything down perfectly.
Yeah they did a good a job with it.
Sounds like a useful book with an hands-on-approach. Nice!
Yeah, it was good.
DBT skills books are great. They helped me a lot.
Yeah, they’re very useful.
It sounds like a great book! Going to google for those DBT “distractions!” 🙂
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I have this book.
Oh good!
I blogged about this book last year. My counselor had me to get it for our sessions.
We have this book! I flutter around it like a humming bird not staying very long, I get the fidgets lol 🙂 it is a great book
It’s well designed for fluttering. 🙂
I love this book!!!
Yeah it’s a good one!
I’ve gone through this book…its a good book
Yeah seems likel a lot of people do.
Thanks for sharing – DBT is one area of therapy I don’t know much about, but I really like the sound of some of the techniques this book mentions. Sounds like it’s worth a read! x
Yeah DBT has some really great tools.
Thanks for a great review Ashley! I am definitely gonna check this book out! X
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Thank you Ashley. I don’t know much about DBT but if I can learn something from it I’ll add it too my list of too get books. Thanks for sharing
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I have borderline personality disorder and also have this essential book. I should write about my experiences using it too, the more it’s out there the better for fellow people. ❤
Yes, that’s a great idea!