Finding a therapist
Organize your search
Therapist directories
Psychology Today – under “find a therapist” in the menu, you’ll find an index of all types of therapists with filters for location, types of therapy, specialty, ethnicity, sexuality, faith, and more
DBT-Linehan Board of Certification – index of DBT certified therapists and clinicians
Behavioral Tech – index of DBT certified therapists
University of Washington Behavioral Research & Therapy Clinics – DBT resource list specific to Seattle & King County, Washington
University of Washington Behavioral Research & Therapy Clinics – links to additional resources
Books & other references
DBT references
DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets by Marsha Linehan
The DBT OG. All the handouts and worksheets referenced in the podcast.
Helpful books
The Gift of Fear: Survival Signs that Protect Us From Violence by Gavin DeBecker
Wanna stop judging your anxiety? This book does a great job of explaining how our fear is trying to help us AND how to not let it run your life. Buy it from a Black-owned book store!
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D.
A deep dive into the effects of trauma and PTSD on the body. Reading this book was the first time I actually understood the chaos that was happening in my body. Note: both this author and the way he presents information have been found to be extremely problematic and triggering (so I’m not going to link to it). Read with a grain of salt. Better yet, check out other books by women and/or Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, including:
- The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice by Staci Haines
- Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror by Judith Lewis Herman, MD
- Decolonizing Trauma Work: : Indigenous Stories and Strategies by Renee Linklater
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (Diagnosis and Treatment of Mental Disorders) by Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP
I found the sections on invalidation to be incredibly validating and helped to explain my persistent triggers around invalidation. Buy it from a Black-owned book store!
Treating Trauma in Dialectical Behavior Therapy: The DBT Prolonged Exposure Protocol (DBT PE) by Melanie S. Harned, PhD, ABPP
The handouts section contain a) the forms that I use for my exposure therapy, AND b) excellent graphics and tables explaining how trauma works. Buy it from a Black-owned book store!
Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life: The New Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Steven C. Hayes PhD, with Spencer Smith
I did several exercises from this book, and found the chapters on values (chapters 11, 12, and 13) particularly helpful. Buy it from a Black-owned book store!
The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
I found this to be a very hopeful imagining of what living in community with other disabled, mentally ill, neurodivergent folks can look like. The author asks the question; what if disability justice and disabled wisdom are crucial to creating a future in which it’s possible to survive fascism, climate change, and pandemics and to bring about liberation? Buy it from a Black-owned book store!
Other worksheets
ACT values
The Complete Worksheets for The Confidence Gap by Russ Harris from TheHappinessTrap.com
Graphics
Emotion Wheel (E-Wheel)
Note: I did not develop the contents of this graphic. It is adapted from a graphic provided by Bob Goettle at Maple Leaf DBT, which itself was an alternative graphic to Emotion Regulation Handout 5 in Marsha Linehan’s DBT Skills Training Manual.
Coping Thoughts
Note: I did not develop the contents of these pages. “List of Coping Thoughts” is provided by Fairfax Behavioral Health Hospital. “Examples of Affirmations” is provided by Cascade Behavioral Health Hospital. My edits/additions are included in blue.
Misery With vs Without Mindfulness
Compared to not using mindfulness, using mindfulness will increase misery in the short term and decrease misery in the long term.
Wise Mind Venn Diagram
The DBT manual depicts Wise Mind as the intersection of Thinking (Rational) Mind and Emotion Mind. My first DBT instructor preferred the graphic below which depicts Wise Mind as a state that considers ALL of Thinking Mind and Emotion Mind.
The DBT manual includes short descriptions of each state of mind (denoted by *). The remaining descriptive text is from my own notes while in the DBT Skills Group led by Bob Goettle.
Competency Tiers
The four tiers of competency (left side of the diagram below) were first labeled by Martin M. Broadwell in “Teaching for learning (XVI)”, 1969. I’ve added my own notes within the pyramid and to the right. The tiers of competency are useful to understand our experience of each tier for a given skill (i.e. our confidence, our comfort level).
Pros and Cons grid
The generic version of the Pros and Cons grid adapted from the DBT manual.
The Pros and Cons grid from the DBT manual filled out with my personal pros and cons for my crisis urge of self-harming.
The Pros and Cons grid from the DBT manual filled out with my personal pros and cons for my urge of telling my parents that I have autism.
Exposure recording forms
The blank version of the standard DBT-PE exposure recording form adapted from Treating Trauma in dialectical Behavioral Therapy: The DBT Prolonged Exposure Protocol (DBT-PE) by Melanie S. Harned.
The exposure recording form as filled out in episode 24.
Diary cards
Diary card version I used during my first round of DBT skills group in 2016-2017. Adapted from the diary card provided by Bob Goettle at Maple Leaf DBT.
Diary card version that I currently use with my individual DBT therapist. Adapted from PsychSurveys. I use the website or app to fill out my diary card – the graphic is my rendering of that information. Note: the urges/target behaviors and effective behaviors are specific to what I want to track. You may have some overlap with these and may want to swap out or add other urges/behaviors.
Valid / Justified / Effective
Valid Justified Effective table
A break-down of the components of emotions, thoughts, urges, and behaviors into their component parts, and looking at whether those parts are valid, justified, and/or effective. This graphic is part 1 of 3 that make up the summary graphic.
Valid Justified Effective flow chart
A flow chart depicting the different combination of justified/valid/effective that the components of emotions, thoughts, urges, and behaviors (see graphic 1) can exist in. This graphic is part 2 of 3 that make up the summary graphic.
Valid Justified Effective Venn diagram
A Venn diagram depicting the different combination of justified/valid/effective that the components of emotions, thoughts, urges, and behaviors (see graphic 1) can exist in. This graphic is part 3 of 3 that make up the summary graphic.
Valid Justified Effective summary
A summary graphic incorporating the previous three graphics into one. This summary depicting the different combination of justified/valid/effective that the components of emotions, thoughts, urges, and behaviors can exist in.
Valid Justified Effective definitions
Now we’re really getting into the weeds about the contradictory definitions of “validation” in the DBT manual. This graphic also defines “justified” and “effective.”
Levels of Validation
This graphic provides a simplified version of the six levels of Validation on Interpersonal Effectiveness Handout 18.
Examples of Validation Phrases
This graphic provides a sample of phrases to use when using the Validation skill on Interpersonal Effectiveness Handout 17 and 18.
How to Tell if You’re Invalidating Yourself
This graphic provides some signs that can indicate when you’re invalidating yourself.
Beliefs That Get In the Way of Self-Soothing
This graphic provides examples of myths that prevents us from using the Self-Soothe skill from Distress Tolerance Handout 8.
Cognitive distortions
Adapted from TherapistAid.com, this document provides examples of cognitive distortions that get in our way of interacting with reality as it is.
Radical Acceptance Comic
I was inspired to make this comic after editing Episode 49 on harming others & acceptance. I have a lot of harmful beliefs about what radical acceptance is, and these beliefs get in the way of us actually practicing acceptance. This comic represents some of the most common ways I resist accepting. Learn more on Distress Tolerance Handout 11A – Radical Acceptance: What Gets In The Way.
Urge Surfing
This is not an official DBT publication; rather, it is what I use when I practice urge surfing. The urge surfing skills is mentioned on several handouts and worksheets in the addiction section of Distress Tolerance. However, there is no DBT handout or worksheet detailing how to use the skill. Several of my instructors described urge surfing as something akin to Mindfulness of Current Emotions and/or Thoughts*, so I selected the steps from each of these two skills that also apply to urges.
Willfullness-Willingness Spectrum
The Willingness skill is from Distress Tolerance Handout 13 in the DBT manual. It can be hard to visualize what willing behavior might look like. It may be easier to picture willful behavior and then determine the opposite of that behavior. This graphic gives examples of willful behavior and accompanying opposites.
Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDs)
Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDs) is a way to communicate and track where one is emotionally. There are different ways to visualize one’s SUD scale including a thermometer or a chart. Both options are below.
A graphic depicting which DBT modules are most effective at different areas of a SUD scale.
I find it helpful to identify what my various levels of distress look like for different emotions. This is a summary of what my experience/expression is of four different emotions when my SUDs are at 40-70 and also at 70-100. I’ve also included what skills are helpful for me to use in these two different areas. You can find a blank version of this to fill out for yourself here.
This blank graphic provides space to identify what your various levels of distress look like for four different emotions at different SUD levels. To the left of the thermometer is space to include what skills you find helpful at various SUD levels.
This chart is an alternative to the thermometer and shows what my experience and expression of an emotion (anxiety) is when it’s rising, high, and at it’s maximum level. You can find a blank version of this to fill out for yourself here.
This chart is an alternative to the thermometer and provides space to describe your experience and expression of an emotion when it’s rising, high, and at it’s maximum level.
The Mindfulness of Others skill is from Interpersonal Effectiveness Handout 12 in the DBT manual. It can be hard to visualize what being mindful of others might look like and may be easier to picture mindless-of-others behavior and then determine the opposite of that behavior. This graphic gives examples of mindless-of-others behavior and accompanying opposites.
Videos
Box breathing
I find box breathing super useful when I want to slow my breath down in the middle of anxiety or panic. The playback speed of the video can be adjusted to go even slower (adjust the playback speed via the settings gear icon).
