Tag Archives: DBT Manual Forward

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

During these years, DBT has become an essential treatment approach throughout the world. It has been integrated into clinics and numerous other clinical and educational settings, offering new lives and renewed hope to countless individuals. For those who—overwhelmed by emotional pain and suffering because they could not regulate their emotions—had lost the will to live; for those who repeatedly found themselves in conflict with others despite their best intentions because they could not recognize or resolve their own difficulties; and for those who lacked guidance on how to manage their emotions, learn new behaviors, and build a life worth living, DBT has brought about a profound transformation—serving as a 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 their pain and wounds, suffered alongside them, laughed with them, and walked with them through their DBT treatment journey.

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

The DBT framework for education, training, treatment, and program operation is remarkably precise, thorough, ethical, and grounded in compassion. I believe it stands as 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 approach with clients from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, I witnessed changes that were almost unbelievable. Individuals who had repeatedly faced inpatient hospitalization due to impulsive behaviors and self-harm related to emotion dysregulation began, after about seven months of DBT treatment, to secure employment and build healthy, lasting relationships.

When adapted for Korean clients, the program also successfully alleviated symptoms of Hwa-Byung—a condition frequently seen among first-generation Korean immigrants. Over the past 15 years, we have provided DBT individual therapy and skills training groups (which we call “DBT Classes”) for adults, adolescents, and parents experiencing a wide range of symptoms related to emotion regulation difficulties. Time and again, we witnessed clients and parents truly thrive using these skills.

Over the past 20 years, I have met treatment professionals from many different fields, and 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 witness Dr. Linehan’s lifelong research, clinical work, and compassion for clients up close cannot help but be struck by its immense 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 remain deeply attentive to the dangers of excessive commercialization and strive to uphold the highest ethical standards. They are individuals who devote extraordinary time and effort to deliver a demanding therapy to clients whose suffering is equally demanding. Perhaps, for this reason, the clients and families who find DBT treatment are fortunate in a very real sense.

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

Together with these two volumes, the DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents by Jill Rathus, PhD, and Alec Miller, PsyD, provides a tailored 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 these three Korean translations will be dedicated to academic and publishing work for faithful DBT treatment, as well as to the ongoing operation of the DBT Center of Korea.

Through this preface, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all the staff members of The Tree Group who helped make the publication of this book possible. This translation could not have been realized 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.