DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition: Preface to the Korean Edition by Yong Cho, PhD

Twenty-four years have passed since the publication of Marsha M. Linehan’s first book on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder, and ten years have now passed since the Korean translation was published.

During these years, DBT has become an essential treatment approach throughout the world. It has been applied in clinics and in many other clinical and educational settings, offering new lives and renewed hope to countless people. For those who, overwhelmed by emotional pain and suffering because they could not regulate their emotions, had thought about death; for those who repeatedly came into conflict with others despite their intentions because they could not recognize or resolve their own difficulties; and for those who had no guidance for how to manage their emotions, learn new behaviors, and build a meaningful life, DBT has brought about life-changing transformation—almost like life-giving medicine.

Over the past 15 years, at The Tree Group / DBT Center of Korea, we have met and treated many clients who came to us through different paths. We have shared in their pain and wounds, suffered with them at times, laughed with them at times, and walked with them through DBT treatment.

Marsha Linehan personally visited Korea and provided training for professionals through a workshop hosted by our organization. Anthony DuBose, PhD, now Chief Training Executive and Director of CE/CME at Behavioral Tech, and Jennifer Sayrs, PhD, now Executive Director of Evidence Based Treatment Centers of Seattle (EBTCS), both leading DBT experts in Seattle, where the central home of DBT is located, also worked closely with The Tree Group DBT team. Through visits between Seoul and Seattle, they helped us implement DBT with fidelity.

The DBT system for education, training, treatment, and program operation is remarkably precise, thorough, ethical, and grounded in compassion. I believe it may be one of the finest therapeutic systems in existence today.

I first encountered Dialectical Behavior Therapy in 1998 while training at Zucker Hillside Hospital in New York. As I applied this new treatment approach with clients from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, I witnessed changes that were almost unbelievable. People who had repeatedly come to inpatient units because of impulsive behaviors and even self-harming behaviors related to emotion dysregulation began, after about seven months of DBT treatment, to find new jobs and form new relationships.

In a DBT program for Korean clients, symptoms of Hwa-Byung, a condition often seen among first-generation Korean immigrants, also began to decrease. Over the past 15 years, we have provided DBT individual therapy and skills training groups—which we called DBT Classes—for adults, adolescents, and parents experiencing a wide range of symptoms related to emotion regulation difficulties. Again and again, we witnessed clients and parents improve through the use of DBT skills.

Over the past 20 years, I have met treatment professionals from many different fields. One thing I have consistently felt is that DBT therapists are, in a distinctive way, deeply committed people. Anyone who has had the opportunity to experience Dr. Linehan’s lifelong research, treatment work, and compassion for clients up close cannot help but be struck by its depth.

The therapists who practice DBT around the world, bringing together high levels of professionalism, ethics, and spiritual commitment in both research and clinical settings, are truly remarkable people. Many are grounded in mindfulness and deep contemplative practice. They are also attentive to the dangers of excessive commercialization and strive to uphold ethical standards. They are people who devote extraordinary time and effort to treating a demanding therapy, with clients whose suffering is also deeply demanding. Perhaps, for this reason, clients and families who receive DBT treatment are fortunate in a very real sense.

In 2015, Dr. Linehan published the second editions of her 1993 works: DBT Skills Training Manual, Second Edition and DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition. Our team came to translate these two vast and intricately organized volumes. Dr. Linehan’s books represent the culmination of 25 years of DBT treatment and will be of great value to both professionals and clients.

Together with these two volumes, DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents by Jill Rathus, PhD, and Alec Miller, PsyD, is a DBT treatment manual for adolescents, parents, and caregivers. This book, too, reflects Dr. Linehan’s deep care and commitment. In keeping with the intentions and efforts of Dr. Linehan and DBT experts around the world, all proceeds from the three Korean DBT translated volumes will be used for academic and publishing work dedicated to faithful DBT treatment, as well as for the operation of the DBT Center of Korea.

Through this preface, I would like to express my gratitude to all of the staff members of The Tree Group who helped make the publication of this book possible. This translation could not have been published without their devoted efforts.

I hope that this translated volume will be used actively and ethically so that it may offer new opportunities for life to adults, adolescents, parents, and families suffering from emotion regulation difficulties.
I dedicate this book to all those who remain trapped in darkness because of deep wounds and pain.