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Guides to Individualized Evidence-Based Treatment

Doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Practical Guide

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Filled with vivid clinical vignettes and step-by-step descriptions, this book demonstrates the nuts and bolts of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). DBT is expressly designed for—and shown to be effective with—clients with serious, multiple problems and a history of treatment failure. The book provides an accessible introduction to DBT while enabling therapists of any orientation to integrate elements of this evidence-based approach into their work with emotionally dysregulated clients. Experienced DBT clinician and trainer Kelly Koerner clearly explains how to formulate individual cases; prioritize treatment goals; and implement a skillfully orchestrated blend of behavioral change strategies, validation strategies, and dialectical strategies.

219 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

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Kelly Koerner

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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Andrea.
61 reviews
August 25, 2015
This book goes beyond sheer theory and really gets down to the nitty gritty of how to go about practicing DBT (as the title implies). The case studies and examples are not only very helpful but also very "real" and practical. Working with personality disorders and "doing" DBT is no easy feat, but I found this to be a fairly easy read. I especially liked that Koerner acknowledges this, therefore giving examples as to how to "recover" when you may have missed the mark while still being able to salvage the therapeutic alliance. Highly recommend.
Profile Image for Matt.
Author 1 book72 followers
May 10, 2012
This is not an easy read, but it is worth it for all mental health workers.

DBT = a type of therapy designed for those people who are constantly in crisis. I'm talking about people who harm themselves on purpose: cutting themselves with razorblades to release tension, repeatedly attempting suicide, etc. These are often people who suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder. Their life is a living hell, and usually it has become the same for their family and friends.

This book teaches a type of therapy that actually helps them.

I learned quickly through this book that DBT is not something you do on the side. You are either a full blown DBT therapist, or you are not. There is no halfway. There is no dabbling.

Why do I appreciate this book? Because it helps me be a better psychiatrist to all my patients. I currently work on a DBT unit for kids who are so dysfunctional their families have sent them to live in a psych hospital for 3-9 months. Many of them threaten to commit suicide every day, some try. Many cut, all are difficult, all are taxing, and all are capable of recovering and are trying as hard as they can to get better.

This book did not make me a DBT therapist, but it showed me what my patients are learning, how they're being taught, what skills they are learning, and how I can help them too.

I learned to always question my assumptions, my diagnosis, and my treatment. I learned to ask for help more often. I also learned not to give up. I'll get frustrated, angry, sad, and upset. I'll be cussed out, threatened, and sometimes hit... and I always have to remember that it's even worse for my patients. They live it all day every day. I get to go home at night.

Thank you Dr. Koerner. Your book reflects your caring and dedication to a population that many would prefer to forget about.
Profile Image for Stephen Hiemstra.
Author 31 books44 followers
May 26, 2016
One of the most difficult cognitive disorders is borderline personality disorder (BPD), which is diagnosed by ticking off at least 5 out of list of highly 9 provocative behaviors.[1] Believed to be hopelessly unreachable, BPD patients were frequently shunned from treatment both because they routinely burn out their counselors and because insurance companies will not reimburse treatment, leaving families alone to deal with a highly dysfunctional[2] and frequently abusive family member.[3] The biblical picture of the BPD personality is Gomer, the wife of the Prophet Hosea, who is unfaithful, becomes a prostitute, and falls into slavery and who Hosea redeems from slavery much the same way as God redeems us from sin (Hosea 1:2; 3:2).[4]

Hope for beleaguered families has recently come in a new approach to therapy, known as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), which starts by answering the perplexing question posed by BPD: how could such as cognitive dysfunction persist over time with highly intelligent people who ought to be learning from their mistakes, like everyone else?[5] Kelly Koerner, in her book—Doing Dialectical Behavioral Therapy— cites Marsha Linehan, who developed DBT (ix), in hypothesizing an answer to this question:

“…three biologically based characteristics contribute to an individual’s vulnerability. First people prone to emotion dysregulation react immediately and at low thresholds (high sensitivity). Second, they experience and express emotion intensely (high reactivity), and this high arousal dysregulates cognitive processes too. Third, they experience a long-lasting arousal (slow return to baseline).” (5).

In other words, BPD patients are very sensitive people whose learning process is effectively disabled by their hyper-sensitivity to criticism, sometimes arising from a history of child abuse or of pervasive invalidation (7). Because their sensitivity disables their ability to learn from their own mistakes, they repeat the behaviors that lead to those mistakes over and over again. These repeated mistakes disturb their family and friends, who respond with criticism of the patient which shames the patient even more than the mistake. Overwhelmed with negative feedback that the patient cannot process, the patient responds to the shame with avoidance behaviors (running away, using drugs, binging at the mall, jumping into bad relationships, staying up all night…) rather than correcting the underlying mistakes (11-12). The world of BPD is an unhappy world.

Koerner describes the purpose of her book as to: “show[s] why, when, and how to use the principles and strategies of dialectical behavior theory.” (xiii). DBT sets out to accomplish 5 functions:

1. “Enhance client capabilities…
2. Improve client motivation to change…
3. Ensure that new client capabilities generalize to the natural environment…
4. Enhance therapist capabilities and motivation to treat clients effectively…
5. Structure the environment in the ways essential to support client and therapist capabilities…” (18).

Koerner writes in 7 chapters, which are—

1. Tools for Tough Circumstances,
2. Navigating to a Case Formulation and Treatment Plan,
3. Change Strategies,
4. Validation Principles and Strategies,
5. Dialectical Stance and Strategies: Balancing Acceptance and Change,
6. Assess, Motivate, and Move: Getting the Most from Each Interaction, and
7. The Individual Therapist and the Consultation Team (xvii-xviii)

--and which are preceded by front matter (an author about section, note from the editor, foreword by Marsha Linehan, preface, and acknowledgments) and followed by a reference section and index.

A key concept driving DBT is the concept of pervasive invalidation, as Koerner writes:

“Bigger problems arise, however, when caregivers consistently and persistently fail to respond as need to primary emotion and its expression. Pervasive invalidation occurs when, more often than not, caregivers treat our valid primary responses as incorrect, inaccurate, inappropriate, pathological, or not to be taken seriously. Primary responses for soothing are regularly neglected or shamed; honest motives consistently doubted and misinterpreted.” (6)

The therapist practicing DBT works to observe instances of emotional dysregulation (see definition below) in the patient and works backwards from these incidents using behavioral chain analysis (see definition below) to determine precipitating events and vulnerability factors (42). Once these events and vulnerabilities are identified, then the patient is taught the skills necessary to avoid triggering the emotional dysregulation. The kicker is that highly sensitive patients may exhibit emotional dysregulation multiple times in a single counseling session. Consequently, the therapist must have a refined intuition as to when the patient begins to shut down and intervene to “validate” (see definition below) them in working to accomplish the goals for the session.

Let’s dial back into this last string of statements to define a few terms.

Emotional Dysregulation. Koerner defines emotional dysregulation as:

“..the inability, despite one’s best efforts, to change or regulate emotional cues, experiences, actions, verbal responses, and/or nonverbal expression under normative conditions.” (4).

Where normally we might react to invalidating information by pausing to reflect, the patient here is firing up heated emotions (think door-slamming anger), even if no words are spoken, so that the therapy session cannot move to the next point until these emotions are dealt with.

Behavioral Chain Analysis. Koerner defines behavioral chain analysis as:

“…an in-depth analysis of events and contextual factors before and after an instance (or set of instances) of the targeted behavior. It is a way to identify the controlling variables for the behavior.” (42)

Typically, the therapist will stop the conversation, observe the patient’s behavior leaning towards emotional dysregulation, ask the patient if it is true, validate the patient, and then begin parsing back in the conversation to identify a triggering word or idea. Once a trigger is identified, the therapist engages the patient in a conversation about alternative responses to the trigger.

Validate. For BPD patients, change interventions require processing negative feedback appropriately and their sensitivity to such feedback makes it hard for them to hear, let alone respond to. Therefore, Koerner defines validation in these terms:

“With empathy, you accurately understand the world from the client’s perspective; with validation you also actively communicate that the client’s perspective makes sense…validation, in itself, can produce powerful change when it is active, disciplined, and precise. Used genuinely and with skill, it reduces physiological arousal that is a normal effect of invalidation and it can cue more adaptive emotions to fire.” (15).

Validation is more than “buttering the patient’s bread”, it communicates that the patient is truly understood, which may be the first time that they have experienced it and which helps enable the patient to trust the therapist.

Kelly Koerner is the director of the Evidence-Based Practice Institute,[6] a clinical psychologist and DBT trainer. She has written a number of books. She received her doctorate from the University of Washington and studied under Marsha Linehan, who developed DBT.

Kelly Koerner’s Doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a fascinating book of obvious interest to counselors and other therapists working with difficult patients. I found her descriptions of the use of emotional wisdom in her case studies especially interesting, in part because they were both lengthy and detailed, as behavioral chain analysis requires.


[1] The DSM –IV lists: 1. Feelings of abandonment, 2. Unstable relationships, 3. unstable self-image, 4. Impulsivity (in money management, sexual behavior, etc.), 5. Suicidal behavior, 6. instability of mood, 7. Feelings of emptiness, 8. Inappropriate levels of anger, and 9. Paranoid ideation (my abridgement). Also see: (Kreger 2008 25).

[2] BPD patients are about 2 percent of the general population but 12 percent of the male prison population and 28 percent of the female prison population. About 40 percent of the people using mental health services have BPD (Kreger 2008, 21).

[3] Spouses of BPD patients are a high risk of suicide.

[4] See discussion: (Stanford 2008, 197-212).

[5] Mental patients should not be confused with special needs individuals—mental patients often score very high on intelligence tests.

[6] http://www.PracticeGround.org.

References

American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV). 1994. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Mental Disorders (fourth edition). Washington DC.

Kreger, Randi. 2008. The Essential Family Guide to Borderline Personality Disorder: New Tools and Techniques to Stop Walking on Eggshells. Center City: Hazelden.

Stanford, Matthew S. 2008. Grace for the Afflicted: A Clinical and Biblical Perspective on Mental Illness. Colorado Springs: Paternoster.
Profile Image for Sheri.
1,332 reviews
April 13, 2025
I took three days of a seven day DBT training earlier this month; am finishing up at the end of the month. This book was assigned reading for the training.

It is very approachable and easy to following. Koerner provides lots of clinical examples and good overview of DBT theory and practice along with basic framework of key principles.

Personally, DBT is very useful for me and frequently meshes with my therapeutic style and way that I want to (as a human, don't always succed in) be in the world. One quote that feels particularly relevant for me (an also reminds me of one of my favorite songs as a way to be guided in life): "reality is whole, related, and in connection, leads to see that everything is caused, and therefore in a profound sense could not be otherwise." We have to simultaneously respect all perspectives, understood what is as inevitable, let go of regrets, and work to make change in the future.

Overall it was an easy read and useful to validate and solidfy understanding both intuitively and from training.

Profile Image for Veronica Z.
12 reviews8 followers
February 22, 2021
For any therapist who has a foundation in DBT, this book could help deepen your understanding of essential DBT skills and concepts, regardless if you are a hardcore DBT practitioner or just enjoy some elements of DBT. Carefully balancing between principles of validating and changing, "DBT-minded" therapists aim at guiding clients in moving from what haunted them in the past, whether it is trauma, a more sensitive temperament, or lack of skills to confront daily challenges, and moving towards a life worth living.
Profile Image for Maggie.
36 reviews56 followers
October 15, 2021
Great book about working with clients with borderline processes. I would give it 4.5 stars if I could. I find the approaches practical with an understanding of borderline processes and triggers. I have read quite a few books from a developmental lens and trauma perspective to understand borderline but the practicalities of working with borderline clients are far more complex, which this book effectively addresses.

The reasons for half a star off
1) for an integrative therapist, at times DBT feels too manualised to be useful. I like the frameworks of prioritising therapeutic goals, but some of the step by step charts and approaches would be hard to incorporate in the type of psychotherapy I practice.

2) the hate in the countertransfance, the projective identification are really important aspects of working with clients with borderline processes - I find these to be the most challenging aspects. The pull to enact abandonment, hate and abuse through client projective identification is strong and can often derail and interfere treatment. This is why a lot of practitioners find it difficult to work with this group of clients. I find that this book provides practical understanding and skills training to deal with these, but for a practitioner, a psychodynamic or psychoanalytic understanding of these processes would be needed to enhance the underlying reflective processes for a practitioner to be able to effectively utilise the skills. Sometimes just presenting the skills can feel a bit superficial.

I still hugely enjoyed the book overall - no book can offer all angles on one subject and this one certainly offered a very important angle. I’m so obsessed with Marsha Linehan now, I started reading her biography “building a life worth living” 😊
Profile Image for akemi.
541 reviews312 followers
Currently reading
July 30, 2024
Essentially:
With empathy, you accurately understand the world from the client's perspective; with validation you also actively communicate that the client's perspective makes sense.
. . .
Dialectics is both a view about the nature of reality and a method of persuasion. In both, an essential idea is that any one position contains its antithesis or opposite position. Progress comes from the resolution of the two opposing positions into a synthesis. In other words, the way forward is to simultaneously accept the client and push for change.
. . .
Taking a dialectical perspective means one understands that suicidal clients like Marie simultaneously want to live and want to die. Saying aloud to her therapist, "I want to die" rather than killing herself in secrecy contains within it the opposite position of "I want to live."
. . .
Rather than become polarised, in a dialectical approach the therapist agrees that the client's life is unbearable and that the client needs a way out, and offers another route, using therapy to build a life that is genuinely worth living.
Profile Image for Carol.
3 reviews
September 9, 2025
Um livro muito interessante para iniciar os estudos na DBT! Fico pensando em como deve ser difícil traduzir conceitos tão complexos com a simplicidade que Koerner faz e, em decorrência dessa mesma simplicidade, sobram alguns espaços de interrogação sobre as explanações realizadas... De todo modo, tenho para mim que é um livro introdutório e não objetiva, portanto, finalizar a compreensão e discussão do conteúdo colocado, sendo um bom ponto de partida para conhecer e apaixonar-se pela dialética!
Profile Image for Rachel.
182 reviews18 followers
June 5, 2019
An excellent guide to doing DBT in individual therapy. It explains the concepts really well and uses lots of case examples to illustrate the main points, including in-session dialogue which was really helpful
Profile Image for Megan.
15 reviews
July 22, 2020
A clear and comprehensive guide to the foundational theory and practice of DBT. Koerner's explanations and case examples are tangible and practical for treating a population with BPD.
Profile Image for Valerie.
62 reviews6 followers
March 1, 2021
This book was a very helpful manual for doing dbt work. If you are completely new to dbt it though, know that this book does not expound on any of the skills training like wise mind or radical acceptance. It’s focus is on what happens in the therapy room vs. the psychoeducation/skills training portion of dbt. The book focuses on arguably the harder thing to do- to help the therapist intuitively think in a dialectical manner.
Profile Image for Rita.
452 reviews42 followers
April 3, 2015
I had to take this one back to the library before I finished it, but I certainly learned a lot. Anyone who has worked with Emotional Unstable Personality Disorder knows that it can be tricky to handle. This book is a good introduction to what is certainly a useful tool to have in your tool box. The insight it gives you as to why people have evolved to have these difficulties is certainly something that I will take with me and reflect back on every time I am dealing with counter-transference issues.
Profile Image for Sherri Westbury.
145 reviews
May 16, 2016
A must read for those in the field. An excellent companion to Marsha's work!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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