DBT Skills for Teens with Anxiety: Practical Strategies to Manage Stress and Strengthen Emotional Resilience

by Atara Hiller PsyD

Relieve Anxiety, Reduce Emotional Chaos, and Change Unwanted Behaviors with Essential DBT Skills.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) has been proven to help adolescents and teens get through some of the toughest times in their lives—from chronic stress and worry to panic attacks, phobias, and overwhelm. In DBT Skills for Teens with Anxiety, licensed psychologist and DBT Certified Clinician Atara Hiller shares practical therapy techniques from five areas of  mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and the Middle Path—to help you find calm and control even when life feels unbearably hard.  
 
·         SKILLS YOU CAN USE RIGHT AWAY, from disrupting spiraling thoughts to navigating conflict and creating positive emotions    
·         STEP-BY-STEP PRACTICE EXERCISES using relatable examples that make DBT skills engaging and easy to understand
·         14 READY-TO-USE DBT TOOL KITS developed for common stressors like exams, peer pressure, and fights with family
·         BONUS TRACKERS AND TEMPLATES to create your own cope-ahead plans and custom DBT tool kits  

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook

191 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 2, 2023

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for something just like this to use with my teen and tween for some social-emotional learning. Both of my kids tend to struggle with perfectionism (and its cousin, anxiety) -- so a book FULL of tools is exactly what we needed!

(I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

[Susan Dempsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a book to listen to in the car. Reference to taking time out to take notes. More a book to read than listen to.

[BookWaffle :3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

"If you are reading this book, you have likely been struggling with anxiety."
"Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is an effective treatment for people who struggle with emotions, including anxiety, depression, anger and shame."

"DBT Skills for Teens with Anxiety" is a hard-hitting, educational book about how we can be more in tune with ourselves and what we feel., and handling of certain situations in a better way. It was a treat to read this and an eye-opening experience.

The book is written uniquely and is divided into three simple parts with a few chapters on anxiety, mindfulness, potential conflict resolutions and more. The chapters are short, the sentences easy to read, and consist of activities on changing your emotions and thoughts next time you go through anxiety.

I would advise anyone who sees this comment to give the book a go if they have ever fallen into bad or uncomfortable situations.

[Kimberly Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dialectical Behavior Therapy has often been touted as the type of therapy for individuals with borderline personality disorder. Psychology professionals are now realizing that DBT can be useful for many other diagnoses as well, including eating disorders and anxiety. This book provides easy to read and therefore, easy to implement DBT strategies. It includes mindfulness skills, distress tolerance skills, interpersonal skills, and ways to manage emotions. All of the main tenets of DBT are provided in a “teen friendly” format with vignettes, worksheets, and other helpful tips. There are “ready to use” scenarios and “kits” for relevant topics for teens including: text anxiety, peer pressure, and fights with family and friends. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy in exchange for my honest review. If I could give this more than 5 stars, I would.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review: DBT skills for Teena with Anxiety
Author: Atara Hiller

Rating: ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️4/5

As an adult who recently went through an intensive DBT training program I was very interested in what this book had to say.
I also have twin 11 year old daughters who both have sensory sensitivity issues, and as they prepare for their teen years I am doing my research on helpful tools for them to shore up this mental health in a way I was never able to do in my adolescence.

I think this book is a great tool to add to my collection. I appreciate the ways that the DBT language is communicated to teens in a way that is clear and accessible but not lacking any of the truth that I experienced in my DBT intensives. I read the ebook but I plan on buying a hard copy to have on hand for my daughters!

I received an ARC of this book from Net galley in return for my honest review

[Tasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's all in the title - you've picked this book up because you are (or you're supporting) a teen with anxiety and you might have heard that Dialectical Behavioral Therapy skills can help with emotional regulation. This is an easy-to-read book which explains all the acronyms - DEARMAN, GIVE, FAST, ACCEPTS, and more. It is as if author Atara Hiller condensed down Marsha Linehan's seminal work on DBT, "Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder", down to the most essential points and stresses that these skills are effective for all teens who are struggling with anxiety.

I read the Kindle edition, but would appreciate a copy of the print edition as well to get access to the worksheets in the appendix. I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley and the publishers.

[Bonni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you have teens, work with teens, or know teens? Better yet, do you have emotions, or know anybody who has emotions? Because this book isn't just for teens with anxiety. It's a helpful guidebook for anybody who wants to improve how they show up in emotionally charged situations. None of the guidance is new, but it's packaged and explained in simple situation-specific exercises without being so formulaic that one couldn't apply the skills in a variety of ways. Much like Anxiety Relief for Teens by Regine Galanti, this is a book I would expect to see in school counseling offices, mental health clinics, libraries, hospitals, and homes. I have already pre-ordered a personal copy.

[Ruby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an arc from Netgalley.

I was familiar with a few strategies that were included in the book and they're strategies I often use with my students. I also learned about many other strategies that I can incorporate in the classroom (many of my students have test anxiety). I found these strategies can be helpful to many of my students and I will definitely be recommending this to book to them as well as purchasing a couple of copies to keep in the classroom.

[Georgia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a practical book filled with select DBT skills to help teens experiencing anxiety. The book has worksheets and scenarios to apply skills to for teens. Although DBT was designed for people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) originally, DBT is filled with life skills and this book is designed specially for anxiety inducing scenarios. And despite it being titled for teens, I can see it helping plenty of adults too!

Thanks to NetGalley and Zeitgeist Publishing for this ARC.

[mags♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful guidebook with a collection of content that extends beyond anxiety, involving skills such as mindfulness that will assist in overcoming mental health disorders and illnesses. Although majority of the content isn't new, the guidance is accessible and includes simple exercises.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to about 1/3 of this audiobook. at least 75% was workbook activities and questions to answer. Not a great audiobook in this format, but if it was republished with an audiobook in mind, it would be much more useful.

[Stephanie Wilcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 so rough I'm reading workbooks for teens 🙏

[Sammy Kominiarek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks for the gifted book @penguinrandomhouse ! This book explains many great DBT strategies for managing stress / finding calm and control. I look forward to practicing with my students!