The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Diary: Monitoring Your Emotional Regulation Day by Day

by Matthew McKay, Jeffrey C. Wood

A Daily Journal for Taking Charge of Your Emotions

Difficult emotions like anger, fear, sadness, guilt, and shame are part of being alive and are meant to help protect us, but when they get out of control, these emotions can also cause severe pain. When you're in the grip of an emotional storm, it's all too easy to overreact, lash out at others, or become angry with yourself. Therapists created dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, to help people with overwhelming emotions calm themselves when their feelings become too painful or out of control.

The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Diary presents an overview of each of the four DBT skills-distress tolerance, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness-and includes a journal you can use each day to monitor your successes, chart your progress, and stay on track making productive changes in your life.

With this diary, you can: Learn over twenty techniques to use when you feel overwhelmed Observe and record your progress each day Find out which coping strategies work best for you Discover nutrition and lifestyle changes that can make you feel better

Genres: Psychology, Mental Health, Self Help, Nonfiction, Emotional Regulation, Reference

168 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Matthew McKay, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, and author of more than 30 professional psychology and self-help books which have sold a combined total of more than 3 million copies. He is co-founder of independent self-help publisher, New Harbinger Publications. He was the clinical director of Haight Ashbury Psychological Services in San Francisco for twenty five years. He is current director of the Berkeley CBT Clinic. An accomplished novelist and poet, his poetry has appeared in two volumes from Plum Branch Press and in more than sixty literary magazines. His most recent novel, Wawona Hotel, was
published by Boaz Press in 2008.

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because I have to have something to hold me accountable for the things I am learning. Otherwise, I won't actually put them into practice. This is organized well and includes some easily digestible explanations at the beginning.

[Kelly]

Took me a cool 10 years to finish this but it's been a super handy resource. I was initially really annoyed that 50% of is copies of the same weekly worksheet... mostly because I didn't want to do said worksheet. But I actually really like that about it now!

[Mkittysamom · Rating 3 out of 5]

PITA.. to remember to remember my skills and fill it out but it works!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read, understand and follow! A WONDERFUL addition to the Dialectical Behaviour Therapy Workbook and/or an outpatient DBT program :D The diary portion makes doing or tracking your moods, behaviours and patterns so simple and gives you 60 days worth of pages! Results are laid out before your eyes. I also just love the reviews of the DBT skills in the beginning - everything you need, small enough to carry around in your purse with you ;-)

[Ashley Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last half of this book consists of blank journal pages, the first half breaks down the basic skills of DBT. Though not an in-depth discussion of DBT, this is a handy reference guide and tool for self reflection.

[Peregrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource for keeping track of yourself and keeping up with new skills.