Building a Life Worth Living

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Linehan shows, in Building a Life Worth Living, how the principles of DBT really work-and how, using her life skills and techniques, people can build lives worth living. And she fulfilled her vow with the development of the first truly effective therapeutic method for these patients.

For those who are looking for more of a traditional memoir, just come in ready to learn a lot about DBT itself. I looked at the audience for a few seconds, casting my eyes here and there at the gathering of so many wonderful people in my life—­friends, colleagues, students and former students. In Building a Life Worth Living, Marsha Linehan shares her experience of suicidal depression to help others who may be experiencing this themselves or someone they love. It has been shown both effective in reducing suicidal behavior and cost-effective in comparison to both standard treatment and community treatments delivered by expert therapists.It was the first successful treatment for this population of people who experience their lives as being in hell, so miserable that death seems to them a reasonable alternative. For example, she suddenly one day just decided to make a vow to God to help others out of hell, and that was what made her snap out of her suicidality.

What was most frustrating was that it seemed like all of her greatest turning points or breakthroughs in her life were some sort of random mystical or religious experience that had nothing to do with therapy. Since using what happens to us to help others is the final stage of healing, this book is a victory on both sides of the page.

She is also working to develop effective models for transferring science-based treatments to the clinical community. This book—in its fierce honesty and, for the careful reader, its practical advice—will help anyone who has struggled to build a life worth living.

In an trajectory having a philosophical orientation towards behaviourism, I was surprised to see no mention of B. I have done many hard things in my life, most prominent of which was having to come to terms with a totally unexpected complete and devastating breakdown of me, of who I was in the world, which you will get a glimpse of shortly.

They are: temperature manipulation, intense exercise, paced breathing, and paired muscle relaxation. There is a HUGE disconnect in our nation between the enormous need for competent psychotherapists, and the institutions that actually provide the training and do the licensing.