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 Web page 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.

Alec L. Miller, PsyD, is cofounder and codirector of Cognitive and Behavioral Consultants, a treatment, training, and consultation center in White Plains and Manhattan, New York; cofounder and Board Vice President of the nonprofit Access Psychology Foundation; and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Montefiore Medical Center of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York. Since the 1990s, Dr. Miller has adapted and applied DBT to youth in outpatient, inpatient, and school settings, as well as to youth who have chronic medical illnesses. His publications include over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, as well as the coauthored books Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Suicidal Adolescents and DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents and the DBT STEPS-A and DBT STEPS-E curricula for secondary and elementary school settings. Dr. Miller has trained thousands of clinicians and school personnel in DBT internationally.

Jill H. Rathus, PhD, is cofounder and codirector of Cognitive Behavioral Associates, a treatment and training center in Great Neck, New York. She is a former Professor of Psychology at Long Island University Post, where she directed the DBT Clinical Research Lab, and serves as Visiting Professor at Shanghai Mental Health Center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. Dr. Rathus is coauthor of books including Dialectical Behavior Therapy with Suicidal Adolescents and DBT Skills Manual for Adolescents, and is a coauthor of the DBT STEPS-A and DBT STEPS-E curricula for secondary and elementary school settings. She consults internationally, has trained thousands of mental health professionals in the United States and worldwide, and is widely published in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Rathus serves as Co-Chair of the Treatment Integrity Committee of the World DBT Association and is a recipient of the Cindy Sanderson Outstanding Educator Award from the International Society for the Improvement and Training of DBT.

Marsha M. Linehan, PhD, ABPP, the developer of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), is Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Director Emeritus of the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics at the University of Washington. Before retiring in 2019, she devoted her career to developing and evaluating evidence-based treatments for populations with high suicide risk and multiple, severe mental disorders. Dr. Linehan is the 2025 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Her contributions to suicide research and clinical psychology research have also been recognized with the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology, the Career/Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Application of Psychology from the American Psychological Foundation, and the James McKeen Cattell Award from the Association for Psychological Science. In her honor, the American Association of Suicidology created the Marsha Linehan Award for Outstanding Research in the Treatment of Suicidal Behavior. Dr. Linehan was featured in TIME Great Scientists: The Geniuses and Visionaries Who Transformed Our World. She is founder of the Linehan Institute and is a Zen master.