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

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

Translator’s Preface to the Korean Edition of the DBT Workbook

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.

2017

Translator, Yong Cho, PhD

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

Translator’s Preface to the Revised Korean Edition

Thirty-two years have passed since the first edition of Marsha Linehan’s original manual on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) was published. Eighteen years have passed since the Korean translation of this book was first introduced in Korea, and eight years have now passed since the publication of the second edition.

During this time, DBT has been applied in many clinical and educational settings, both in Korea and around the world. It has offered new possibilities and hope to many people suffering from emotion regulation difficulties. For those who thought of death in the midst of intense emotional pain, for those who repeatedly came into conflict with others despite their intentions, and for those who could not find a way to regulate their emotions or live a meaningful life, DBT has become a treatment that brings real change into everyday life.

Around 1996, while conducting research to develop a suicide prevention system in the military, I was struck—and disappointed—by how little scientific evidence existed for therapeutic interventions that could actually reduce suicide rates. Most studies remained focused on suicidal ideation, risk factors, or prevention education. In contrast, Dr. Linehan’s controlled research showing a significant reduction in suicidal behaviors among individuals in chronic suicidal crisis revealed a new possibility in the midst of despair. That experience became a major turning point in my professional direction and clinical path.

During my doctoral training and clinical work in the United States, I had the opportunity to learn the clinical practice of DBT in depth through the DBT program at Zucker Hillside Hospital / Long Island Jewish Medical Center, now part of Northwell Health. There, I worked with outstanding supervisors and colleagues, as well as clients from diverse cultural backgrounds.

With the support of John Kane, MD, who was then the hospital director, I established the Asian American Family Clinic in the early 2000s and began providing treatment for Korean and other Asian immigrant clients. I was also able to begin a DBT skills training group in Korean. The early skills training groups included first-generation immigrants in their 50s and 60s, international students in their 20s and 30s, and second-generation Korean Americans.

At that time, I led skills groups while translating Dr. Linehan’s workbook page by page. The verbal and nonverbal feedback that Korean-speaking clients gave to those early translations offered me profound clinical insight. Concepts that felt natural and immediately understandable in English sometimes carried a different emotional meaning in Korean or shifted the direction of understanding. In some cases, the therapeutic response expected in English-speaking contexts did not occur in Korean-speaking contexts.

These experiences became an important foundation for developing a Korean translation system for DBT treatment terms. They also strengthened my conviction that the translation of a treatment manual must be completed as “living language”—language that breathes and moves in the actual treatment setting.

After returning to Korea in 2003, I began working with Marsha Linehan’s team at the University of Washington in Seattle to formally establish the DBT Center of Korea and prepare for the ethical introduction of DBT in Korea. The first task that had to be completed was the translation of the DBT treatment manuals. It was not possible to provide treatment without Korean-language manuals.

Throughout the many years of translating Dr. Linehan’s DBT books, I have held to one consistent principle: the translation of the DBT workbook and professional manual is not a purely linguistic or academic task performed outside the therapy room. It must be composed in living clinical language created between client and therapist in the treatment setting.

This is fully consistent with the way Dr. Linehan wrote the original English manuals. It is also a process that resembles what Gadamer’s hermeneutics calls a “fusion of horizons.” In other words, the translation of the DBT manuals is a living process of therapeutic integration. The horizon of Linehan’s scientific rigor, deep Christian spirituality, Zen Buddhist realization, and the sociocultural background of the United States meets the horizon of the Korean translator, shaped by an understanding of various religious traditions, especially Buddhism, as well as cultural psychology and bilingual experience. It also meets the unique horizons of readers and clients. In that meeting, therapeutic fusion takes place.

This integrative therapeutic process is, in itself, what Dr. Linehan might call a dialectical process. In DBT, the term “dialectical” or “dialectics” is too rich and specific to be fully captured by existing philosophical terms or Sino-Japanese-based vocabulary. In many ways, the Korean understanding of harmony between yin and yang, and the processes of transformation found in Confucian and Buddhist insight, can offer a deeper understanding of the therapeutic process of DBT.

At the same time, one cannot ignore the discomfort or sense of distance that some generations in Korea may feel because of the country’s ideological division and historical trauma surrounding ideology and thought. I discussed these issues several times with Dr. Linehan in the mid-2000s. In 2008, while in Korea, we also discussed how to minimize distortion of the term and honor Dr. Linehan’s intended meaning as faithfully as possible.

For this reason, I have chosen to transliterate “Dialectical” in DBT as “다이어렉티컬” and “dialectics” as “다이어렉틱스.” In DBT, “Dialectical” functions almost as a proper term for the innovative therapeutic process that the author and developer devoted her life to researching and organizing into a treatment. By preserving the English term through transliteration, I found that Korean clients—who are already familiar with many transliterated terms—could avoid unnecessary misunderstanding. It also became possible to teach Linehan’s concept of dialectics in roughly the same amount of time it would take to introduce the concept to English-speaking clients.

Still, I know well, and have not forgotten, that what Dr. Linehan truly hopes for is that all people around the world who suffer from emotional pain may begin a new life through DBT. Just as the author expresses gratitude in the acknowledgments of the revised edition to the teacher who taught her “how to let go of language,” what matters in DBT is not the name or terminology itself. What matters is letting go of the frame of dichotomous language and using language as a means to reach clients effectively and provide treatment.

This revised edition was completed by members of Dr. Linehan’s core DBT group, including Jennifer Sayrs, Emily Cooney, Jill Rathus, Shireen Rizvi, Katherine Comtois, Kathryn Korslund, and Janice Kuo. Some of these experts have visited Korea directly to train Korean DBT professionals, while others have been connected to us through their writings. For decades, they have worked to preserve and develop the original DBT model, and they have continued to offer steady interest and support so that DBT may take root in Korea with fidelity.

As I look back on my 25-year clinical journey with DBT, I still clearly remember meeting Dr. Linehan in 2006. In her office, with a firm and serious expression, she asked me, “Why do you want to begin DBT treatment and training in Korea?” It was a solemn question, like that of a Zen teacher testing the sincerity of one’s heart.

“For whom, and for what, are you doing DBT?”

Her penetrating gaze and question purified my heart in that moment. Since then, whenever I have faced difficulty, they have become a standard that helps me realign my heart as a clinician.

At that time, I shared two hopes with her: first, to offer new hope to people suffering in Korea through high-quality DBT treatment comparable to what is available in the United States; and second, to train DBT professionals with deep humanity and genuine sincerity.

In that moment, there was a clear and mindful exchange of hearts. Dr. Linehan immediately picked up the phone and said, “It will be difficult to do this alone. You need a team. You must meet the team I completely trust.” The person she called was Tony DuBose, PhD, then the director of Evidence Based Treatment Centers of Seattle and now the leader responsible for education and training at Behavioral Tech. Since then, Dr. Linehan and Dr. DuBose’s team have visited Seoul in person and have continued to support the mission of DBT Korea.

DBT is more than a set of clinical skills. It is a treatment system that brings together deep spiritual reflection, genuine humanity, and rigorous academic and ethical standards. I offer my deepest gratitude to all therapists who are practicing DBT at this very moment and supporting the lives of their clients, and to all clients who are building new lives through DBT.

I offer special thanks to Songhee Chae, who reviewed every manuscript of this revised edition with me and walked through the publication process together. I also sincerely thank the many people who offered valuable comments and suggestions through the multiple printings of the second edition, the professionals who participated in the DBT Experiential Class and other training programs and shared their guidance, and above all, the clients who helped create the living clinical language that became the foundation of this workbook.

2025

Translator, Yong Cho, PhD

The Revised Edition of the DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets Is Now Available

The Revised Edition of the DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets Is Now Available

“Learning the most practical path toward a life worth living”

The revised edition of DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, a core resource for Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills training, has now been published in Korean.

This revised edition has been carefully updated based on decades of accumulated DBT clinical experience, research, and language that has been tested and refined in actual treatment settings.

The Core of DBT: Acceptance and Change

DBT teaches that building a life worth living requires both acceptance and change.

It invites us to accept this present moment as it is, while also taking steps to move our lives in a better direction.

This workbook offers concrete ways to work with emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and painful experiences. It helps readers learn what can be changed, what needs to be accepted, and how to move forward more effectively.

Why This DBT Workbook Matters Now

Today, DBT extends beyond clinical settings and offers practical tools for many people struggling with emotional pain.

This book is for

clinicians and counseling professionals
students who wish to learn DBT
individuals struggling with emotion regulation difficulties
families, parents, educators, and anyone who wants to live in a more effective and meaningful way.

What the DBT Workbook Offers

This workbook brings together the core materials of DBT skills training:

Mindfulness skills
Interpersonal Effectiveness skills
Emotion Regulation skills
Distress Tolerance skills

The workbook includes DBT skills handouts and worksheets that help readers practice and apply the skills in everyday life. In this revised edition, each handout is placed together with its corresponding worksheet, making it easier to understand, practice, and use the skills.

Revised with Leading DBT Experts

This revised edition was developed with the participation of a core DBT revision team centered around Marsha M. Linehan, PhD. The revision was designed to make the workbook easier to use while preserving the original structure, principles, and spirit of DBT.

The revision committee included internationally recognized DBT experts who have helped preserve and further develop the original DBT model:

Jennifer Sayrs, Emily Cooney, Jill Rathus, Shireen Rizvi, Katherine Comtois, Kathryn Korslund, and Janice Kuo.

In this sense, the revision reflects a distinctly DBT balance: preserving the core principles and spirit of the original skills training materials while updating the language, organization, and examples so that the workbook can be used more effectively by contemporary readers around the world.

A Translation Shaped by ‘Living Clinical Language’

One of the most important features of this revised Korean edition is that it goes beyond literal translation. The language has been shaped through years of direct clinical practice.

The translator, Yong Cho, PhD, is a psychologist licensed in New York State who has provided DBT treatment in both English and Korean since the early 2000s. Drawing on extensive clinical experience with both English-speaking and Korean-speaking clients, Dr. Cho translated the original text faithfully while also ensuring that the language could be used naturally in real therapy.

His guiding principle was that DBT should not remain as words on a page. It must become living language between therapist and client.

Dr. Cho has emphasized that translating a treatment manual is not simply a linguistic task. It is a clinical and cultural process in which Western treatment concepts meet Korean language, culture, and emotional experience.

Translating “Dialectical” as “다이어렉티컬”

The core DBT concept of “Dialectical” is difficult to capture fully through existing Korean terms.

For this reason, the Korean edition of DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets uses the transliterated term “다이어렉티컬.” This choice was made to convey more accurately the kind of thinking and therapeutic change that Marsha Linehan sought to bring into DBT: a movement beyond rigid, either-or thinking throughout the treatment process, rather than a narrow reference to philosophical dialectics.

Dr. Cho explains that he chose “다이어렉티컬” and “다이어렉틱스” in order to preserve the distinctive meaning of the innovative therapeutic process that Dr. Linehan devoted her life to developing.

A Message from the Translator

In the preface to the revised Korean edition, Yong Cho writes:

“The translator knows well, and has not forgotten, that what Dr. Linehan truly hopes for is that all people around the world who suffer from emotional pain may begin a new life through DBT. Just as the author expresses gratitude in the acknowledgments of the revised edition to the teacher who taught her how to let go of language, what matters in DBT is not the name or terminology itself. What matters is letting go of the frame of dichotomous language and using language as a means to reach clients effectively and provide treatment.”

This workbook is more than a collection of skills. It is one way of helping people begin to live again. It also reflects Dr. Cho’s mission: to offer new hope to those who are suffering through high-quality DBT treatment, and to train DBT professionals who practice with deep humanity and genuine clinical integrity.

The revised Korean edition of DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets is now available at major bookstores in Korea

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