The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Anger: Using DBT Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation Skills to Manage Anger

Description

If you have an anxiety disorder or experience anxiety symptoms that interfere with your day-to-day life, you can benefit from learning four simple skills that therapists use with their clients. These easy-to-learn skills are at the heart of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), a cutting-edge therapeutic approach that can help you better manage the panic attacks, worries, and fears that limit your life and keep you feeling stuck. This book will help you learn these four powerful skills: Mindfulness helps you connect with the present moment and notice passing thoughts and feelings without being ruled by them.Acceptance skills foster self-compassion and a nonjudgmental stance toward your emotions and worries.Interpersonal effectiveness skills help you assert your needs in order to build more fulfilling relationships with others.Emotion regulation skills help you manage anxiety and fear before they get out of control.In The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Anxiety, you'll learn how to use each of these skills to manage your anxiety, worry, and stress. By combining simple, straightforward instruction in the use of these skills with a variety of practical exercises, this workbook will help you overcome your anxiety and move forward in your life.

Alexander L. Chapman, PhD, RPsych, is a psychologist and associate professor in the department of psychology at Simon Fraser University (SFU), as well as the president of the DBT Centre of Vancouver. Chapman directs the Personality and Emotion Research Lab, where he studies the role of emotion regulation in borderline personality disorder (BPD), self-harm, impulsivity, and other behavioral problems. His research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Chapman received the Young Investigator's Award of the National Education Alliance for BPD (2007), the Canadian Psychological Association's (CPA) Early Career Scientist Practitioner Award, and a Career Investigator Award from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. He has coauthored six books-three of which received the 2012 Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Book Seal ofMerit Award. He currently serves as principal investigator on large grants focused from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Kim L. Gratz, PhD, is a professor in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where she serves as director of personality disorders research and director of the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) clinic. In 2005, Gratz received the Young Investigator's Award of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEA-BPD). She has written numerous journal articles and book chapters on borderline personality disorder(BPD), deliberate self-harm, and emotion regulation (among other topics), and is coauthor of four books on BPD, self-harm, and DBT (including The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide, Borderline Personality Disorder, Freedom From Self-harm, and The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Anxiety, New Harbinger Publications). Gratz currently serves as principal investigator or co-investigator on several large federal grants, including multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health.

"The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Anger by Chapman and Gratz uses current dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) emotion theory and behavioral principles to create a practical, easy-to-read guidebook for managing unhelpful anger. Complex theory is broken down--step-by-step--into principles of change and then translated into realistic skills and user-friendly worksheets. This manual is a must-read for anyone struggling with how to understand, express, or regulate anger." --Thomas R. Lynch, PhD, FBPsS, professor and director of the School of Psychology and director of the Emotion and Personality Bio-behavioural Laboratory at the University of Southampton, as well as chief investigator at REFRAMED "Anger is an emotion that we all experience in varying degrees. However, intense and poorly modulated anger can greatly interfere with clients' efforts at a central goal of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT): 'building a life worth living.' This compassionately written and motivating workbook is an essential resource for helping clients to understand, express, and effectively manage their anger in nondestructive ways. By teaching clients to apply core DBT skills specifically to help them cope with and manage their anger, this book is an indispensable and potentially life-changing therapeutic tool." --Lori N. Scott, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and clinical psychologist and researcher with expertise in emotion dysregulation, aggression, and treatment approaches for borderline personality disorder "Anyone who gets angry will benefit from learning the skills in this highly readable yet scientifically sound book." --Ruth Baer, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky, and author of The Practicing Happiness Workbook "Chapman and Gratz expand the boundaries of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and provide readers with a practical blueprint for managing destructive and excessive anger reactions. A must-read for anyone interested in reducing problematic anger, improving relationships, and enhancing inner peace." --Raymond Chip Tafrate, PhD, professor and clinical psychologist in the department of criminology and criminal justice at Central Connecticut State University, coeditor of Forensic CBT, and coauthor of Anger Management for Everyone "Chapman and Gratz have given us an excellent workbook that clearly explains dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) theory and shows us how to easily apply DBT skills to episodes of anger. It is clearly written, with many worksheets that help make the concepts come alive. Working through their mindfulness and emotion regulation exercises will surely be of help to all adults who suffer from problematic anger. I strongly recommend this workbook." --Howard Kassinove, PhD, ABPP, professor of psychology and director of the Institute for the Study and Treatment of Anger and Aggression at Hofstra University "Chapman and Gratz have tackled the significant human challenge of anger and provide a much-needed, easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to making anger 'an ally rather than an enemy.' They provide skillful guidance in better understanding, recognizing, and responding to our own angry responses so that anger does not disrupt our lives. Their practical, compassionate approach will help clients (and therapists who work with them) to learn new skills for managing their anger, including how to express it effectively and how to recover following angry interactions. I highly recommend this book to anyone who struggles with anger, and to those committed to helping them lead more satisfying lives." --Lizabeth Roemer, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and coauthor of The Mindful Way through Anxiety "Dysregulated anger is a major part of the emotional instability dimension of borderline personality disorder (BPD). This skills workbook by Chapman and Gratz presents clients, in enriched detail, an abundant array of techniques, self-learning schemes, and practical exercises to enhance anger control capacity. Well done." --Raymond W. Novaco, PhD, professor at the University of California, Irvine "In The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Anger, authors Chapman and Gratz present a nuanced view of anger, pointing out the benefits as well as the pitfalls of this complex and vexing emotion. The authors provide a thorough education on anger, beginning with a useful description of the many diagnoses and clinical presentations that anger often accompanies. They then walk readers through the components of anger, vulnerability factors for anger, keys to recognizing anger, and consequences of anger. They include strategies for increasing commitment to changing it, describe a range of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills for reducing it, provide methods to express it appropriately, offer ways of changing thinking that fuels it, and, importantly, suggest ways to repair relationships after inevitable anger 'slipups' occur. The book includes relevant case vignettes and numerous easy-to-use worksheets that help readers engage with and apply the material. Chapman and Gratz have produced a work in easy-to-understand, clear language that makes behavior therapy principles and DBT skills for the emotion of anger readily accessible to readers. I highly recommend their insightful and helpful book!" --Jill Rathus, PhD, professor of psychology at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, and codirector of Cognitive Behavioral Associates in Great Neck, NY "It's easy to chastise those who don't control their anger and suggest their problem lies in a lack of motivation, but we now know that for many, the problem lies in a lack of anger management skills. This easy-to-read and easy-to-use workbook is framed in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and lays out a road map for identifying anger triggers and the skills that are essential to handling these triggers. Most impressive, the workbook artfully provides the reader with a broad menu of strategies while allowing each individual to zero in and really focus in the areas most central to their own struggles." --Carl Lejuez, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park; founding director of the Center for Addictions, Personality, and Emotion Research; and founding editor of the journal Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment "This much-needed workbook is sure to be a source of hope and relief for those who struggle with anger. Combining evidence-based skills with engaging examples and useful worksheets, this is a practical guide that will help readers learn strategies that work, and identify ways of using these skills in their daily lives. I highly recommend The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Anger." --Katherine L. Dixon-Gordon, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst