Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Suicidal Adolescents

Filling a tremendous need, this highly practical book adapts the proven techniques of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) to treatment of multiproblem adolescents at highest risk for suicidal behavior and self-injury. The authors are master clinicians who take the reader step by step through understanding and assessing severe emotional dysregulation in teens and implementing individual, family, and group-based interventions. Insightful guidance on everything from orientation to termination is enlivened by case illustrations and sample dialogues. Appendices feature 30 mindfulness exercises as well as lecture notes and 12 reproducible handouts for "Walking the Middle Path," a DBT skills training module for adolescents and their families. Purchasers get access to a webpage where they can download and print these handouts and several other tools from the book in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.

See also Rathus and Miller's DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents, packed with tools for implementing DBT skills training with adolescents with a wide range of problems.

Foreword, Charles R. Swenson
Introduction
1. Suicidal Behaviors in Adolescents: Who Is Most at Risk?
2. What Do We Know about Effective Treatments for Suicidal Adolescents?
3. Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Treatment Stages, Primary Targets, and Strategies
4. DBT Program Structure: Functions and Modes
5. Dialectical Dilemmas for Adolescents: Addressing Secondary Targets
6. Assessing Adolescents: Suicide Risk, Diagnosis, and Treatment Feasibility
7. Orienting Adolescents and Families to Treatment and Obtaining Commitment
8. Individual Therapy with Adolescents
9. Including Families in Treatment
10. Skills Training with Adolescents
11. Assessing Progress, Running a Graduate Group, and Terminating Treatment
12. Program Issues
Appendix A. Mindfulness Exercises for Adolescents
Appendix B. Walking the Middle Path Skills: Lecture and Discussion Points
Appendix C. Handouts for Walking the Middle Path Skills

Alec L. Miller, PsyD, is Co-Founder and Clinical Director of Cognitive and Behavioral Consultants, White Plains and New York, New York, and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York. Dr. Miller served for over 20 years as Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychology, Director of the Adolescent Depression and Suicide Program, and Associate Director of Psychology Training at Montefiore Medical Center. He is a scientific advisor to the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention and the National Educational Alliance of Borderline Personality Disorder, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and past Chair of the International Society for the Improvement and Training of DBT. He has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and books on topics including DBT, adolescent suicide, childhood maltreatment, and borderline personality disorder. He is the coauthor of DBT Skills in Schools, DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Suicidal Adolescents. He has conducted over 400 lectures and workshops around the world, training thousands of mental health professionals in DBT.

Jill H. Rathus, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at Long Island University Post, where she directs the DBT scientist-practitioner training program within the clinical psychology doctoral program. She is also Co-Director and Co-Founder of Cognitive Behavioral Associates, a group private practice in Great Neck, New York, specializing in DBT and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Her clinical and research interests include DBT, CBT, adolescent suicidality, intimate partner violence, anxiety disorders, and assessment. Dr. Rathus has developed and conducted programs in DBT for adolescents and adults as well as males referred for intimate partner violence, and has recei