DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents

From leading experts who have trained thousands of professionals in dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), this manual provides indispensable tools for treating adolescents with emotional or behavioural problems of any level of severity. Clinicians are guided step by step to teach teens and parents five sets of skills: Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Walking the Middle Path (a family-based module developed by the authors specifically for teens), Emotion Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness.

Designed for optimal clinical utility, the book features session outlines, teaching notes, discussion points, examples, homework assignments, and 85 reproducible handouts, in a large-size format for easy photocopying. Purchasers also get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP

I. Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training Structure and Strategies

1. An Introduction to Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Skills Training
2. Structure of DBT Skills Training
3. Managing Skills Training Group Sessions
4. The Art of Conducting DBT Skills Training: Balancing DBT Strategies and Managing Dialectical Tensions

II. Skills Training Modules

5. Orientation to the Multifamily Skills Training Group
6. Mindfulness Skills
7. Distress Tolerance
8. Walking the Middle Path
9. Emotion Regulation Skills
10. Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills

III. Skills Training Handouts

• Orientation Handouts
• Mindfulness Handouts
• Distress Tolerance Handouts
• Walking the Middle Path Handouts
• Emotion Regulation Handouts
• Interpersonal Effectiveness Handouts

"Make no mistake: Rathus and Miller are the experts on adolescent DBT. No clinicians in this rapidly expanding field better know the ins and outs of working with teens. This volume reveals in fine detail how to deliver this treatment to teens and their families in a way that will engage them, reach them, and offer them hope. This skills manual is an essential addition to their body of work, likely to make clinicians’ jobs easier while enhancing outcomes, and sure to touch many lives."
- Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP, Director, Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics, University of Washington

"Rathus and Miller are excellent clinicians and gifted writers who have once again teamed up to write a practical, relevant manual. I became absorbed by the book's content and clarity. It is practical in a way that helps clinicians speak to adolescents with compassion and work with them effectively. Accessible instruction is provided for applying DBT skills to a broad range of complex and maladapative adolescent behaviors. The skills are presented with maximal utility and a minimum of jargon. For anyone working with adolescents, this is the most comprehensive DBT manual yet."
- Blaise Aguirre, MD, Medical Director, 3East DBT Program, McLean Hospital; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

"This amazing book is absolutely invaluable for clinicians who treat adolescents struggling to control their emotions and behavior. Written by the world's leading authorities on this topic, this manual outlines the state of the art in adolescent DBT, and does so in a way that is clear, accessible, and easy to implement. This is one of those rare books that every clinician should own—and use."
- Matthew K. Nock, PhD, Department of Psychology, Harvard University