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Hve been taking DBT class for sometime now and recommend for anyone. Classes available for teens also and will assist in easing into adulthood. Book is wonderful and goes along with class well.
Linehan's background is in an ascetic school of "be hard on yourself and easy on others," which is not revelatory and only further piles self-blame on the psychologically burdened. What DO we do with "suffering". Years of institutional abuse and community neglect needs to be occluded by blaming the "stubborn" patients and barking at them to "perk up." Since no one else is doing much of anything to get those with this diagnosis (and those whose symptoms seem near enough to it to throw them into the mix), few will complain if it doesn't help or makes the subjects worse.Therapy was never meant to be a religious sect of self-help, unless its acolytes were trying to profit from the consumer's need for self-blame and guilt-addiction. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy seems designed to protect the pride of therapists and counselors who have lost the plot. And inevitably, it isn't about transforming suffering into a "life worth living" at all, but regulating marginals into appropriate levels of submission for obedience in consumer society. Yet -- who can argue with "mindfulness".
Those with actual diagnoses not included in the "Borderline Personality Disorder" umbrella may try this at home and get much worse.
Her primary assertion of treating mental and emotional suffering as if it was merely irrational has been scarily embraced by legions of doctors and "helpers." Those who advocate it without critical thinking are simply out to make money once patients recognize the damage from deleterious drugs and abusive ECT.
In other words, no, it all didn't just start a few minutes ago, and yes, the mind may be more complicated to change than "faking it till you're making it." Dialectical Behavioral Therapy offers some very interesting and occasionally inarguable skill sets to help people avoid more suffering.
They now have a solution for the Borderline Personality Disorder cases, the "people who can't be helped," whose loved ones "must be protected and not blame themselves." BPD patients won't easily embrace the suggestions (or impatient demands) of the medical profession.
Kittens ARE adorable, but pretending to smile ("half-smile") doesn't work if you've seen one drowned before you (along with enduring other abuses, and maybe having a genetic predisposition to depression, etc).
There is more than a whiff of a scam here, and considering how this affects those who have lost more than most and have the most to lose, might be considered criminal.
Shame on so many in the mental health field for almost fully endorsing a treatment which has not been empirically proven, but has been sold wholesale to those who want their patients to "do the homework" and find their boot-straps.
Unfortunately, the category of "BPD" is offered too freely to test its claims, and those who can't endure its "directive" qualities may find it more damaging than helpful.
For those curious about my review, here's an interesting book to check out: http://www.amazon.com/Bright-sided-Relentless-Promotion-Positive-Undermined/dp/0805087494/ref=sr_1_1.ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254591991&sr=8-1
It's written by "the little Marshas" with the preface from Marsha Marsha, so there you go. Dimeff's articles. All the work done ahead of time, all the references, so you can get to the real stuff and dig in.
We had been doing a pilot at our agency using an adaptation, with very specific criteria for the client demographic, and we certainly did not refer to this group as DBT(.). Dimeff & Koerner. No further word necessary.
Thank you, thank you, Drs. There's a chapter on how to present your findings, there's a chapter on whether or not to use 'real DBT', there's a chapter to help you consider a substance abuse DBT, use with various other situations. It's just such a time saver.
I've read many of Dr. I wish my agency would do the REAL DBT so I could attend your intensive trainings.
-DBT in CP- is not strictly a how-to, though it is that. I had read Linehan's book for school some years ago, and I found her system to be impressive, cohesive and comprehensive but overly scripted and restrictive. And a good deal of what has happened is right here in these 375 odd pages. A lot has happened since then. If I had my druthers (which I rarely do, but let's say I did), I'd have the therapist on the doorstep of training for this "Cadillac" meta-therapy read Dimeff & Koerner -before- moving on to Linehan's -Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder-. That said, the experienced therapist with an open mind will pick up a lot from a cruise through -DBT in CP-, and not in the least, a very solid review of core behavior modification principles with a nice client-centered overlay. The authors of each of the sections have very often provided pretty much all the evidence and process needed to transform the moribund TAU or even ACT program into something solidly proven to be really effective with the difficult-to-treat, borderline-organized patient. But it does quite a bit more than that.
Had I read D&K -first-, however, I think I would have viewed Linehan's book as something like The Grail (although I am pretty IRT-based and think there's a lot that's missing from her rather strictly defined and oddly mnemonic approach. (DBT is, after all, the "bomb" at the current moment, and unless or until the addition of data from the neuropsychological school either moves DBT "up" a few more notches or replaces it with something better - which is tough to believe, and I am -not- a certified DBT therapist, by the way -- -DBT in CP- is the state-of-the-art-as-it-is-(almost)-now).Okay; off my soapbox for DBT as what everyone -ought- to be doing out there in therapyland, and onto why you ought to plunk down your forty odd bucks: Dimeff and Koerner have assembled a platoon of pretty experienced people and they have compelled them to write to a tight format just why, when, where, what and how (in pretty much that order) DBT is useful for group inpatient, incarceration, co-morbid substance abuse, eating disorder, family support, adolescent, older adult, and community mental health end usage. That'll seem odd to the rigid linearist, of course, but here's my argument: Linehan's original text was published 16 years ago. I wonder how many other experienced therapists have reacted similarly. It's a guide to the -application- of Linehan's empirically proven combination of psychodynamic, behavioral and cognitive therapies, every bit as much as it is a revelation of what has been accomplished with DBT since it hit the bricks in the early `90s. This makes -DBT for CP- a fine reference for employing Linehan's original "manual" across a variety of typical treatment settings. and think I understand -why-). The interpersonal, psychodynamic and/or "games theory" practitioner will probably find it useful, and the CBT / REBT therapist who hasn't read it is really missing a major opportunity to hone his or her case management skills.
I was disappointed in this book because it does not give practical application methods and focuses more on research based information.
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