About the Book
Powerful and effective skills to help you manage psychosis, take charge of your emotions, and get back to living your life.Based in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), this first-of-its-kind workbook offers real skills to help you balance your emotions and stay grounded in reality. You'll find self-assessments, worksheets, and guided activities to help you understand your symptoms and manage them in day-to-day life. You'll also gain self-awareness, learn to navigate difficult or stressful situations, and discover healthier ways of interacting with others.If you have a history of psychosis or suffer from psychotic spectrum disorder, you know how difficult it can be. You may experience paranoia, auditory hallucinations, and emotional dysregulation. In addition, you may feel alienated from your friends and family if they have trouble understanding what you're going through. The good news is that you can move beyond the stigma of psychosis, regain hope, and rebuild your life. This compassionate workbook will help you get started.In this workbook, you'll learn the core skills of DBT to help you feel better: *Mindfulness *Distress tolerance *Emotion regulation *Interpersonal effectiveness You'll also find important information on relapse prevention-including warning signs to watch out for, what to do if you have another episode, and an extensive resource list to help you manage your symptoms. And finally, you'll find a wealth of practical tools that can be used every day for long-lasting psychosis recovery.
About the Author :
Maggie Mullen, LCSW is a licensed clinical social worker living in Oakland, CA. They are the author of The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Psychosis, a self-help book designed for people with psychosis and their loved ones. They specialize in CBT for Psychosis, DBT, Prolonged Exposure for PTSD, group work, clinical supervision, and culturally responsive services for the LBGTQ+ community. Maggie received their MSW at the University of California, Berkeley and their pre-masters experience focused on community activism in areas such as criminal justice reform, ending rape culture, and stopping the institutionalization of people with disabilities.
Review :
"A brilliant integration of DBT-based skills, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and psychoeducation for clients and loved ones. It is written in a clear, concise, and compassionate voice that focuses on destigmatizing psychotic spectrum illness--and providing both hope and tangible skills. If you or a loved one struggle with psychosis, this is a must-have guide to understanding and ameliorating your symptoms. If you are a therapist, this book provides a thoughtful and effective framework for treating psychosis. This book is a major contribution to our field."
--Patrik J. Karlsson, LCSW, behavioral health manager, DBT therapist, and former training director in the department of psychiatry at Kaiser Permanente--Patrik J. Karlsson, LCSW
"As a fellow DBT therapist, author, and trainer, I am always on the lookout for simple, practical, and effective ways of making DBT skills usable for the lay reader. In this resource, you will find just that! Maggie Mullen does an amazing job of applying the classic DBT skills of mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness to the symptoms of psychosis and psychotic disorders. This book is a critical adjunct to psychotropic medications!"
--Kirby Reutter, PhD, bilingual clinical psychologist with the Department of Homeland Security, and author of The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for PTSD--Kirby Reutter, PhD
"The experience of psychosis can be traumatizing, often resulting in individuals not only struggling to get back on their feet, but also fearing the next episode and what this might mean for their future. Mullen has done a fantastic job at providing a validating and informative book that will help people not just survive after experiencing psychosis, but learn to thrive once more. This is a much-needed tool for clients experiencing psychosis, as well as for caregivers and therapists working with this population."
--Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, psychotherapist; international speaker; and author of several DBT books, including The DBT Skills Workbook for Teen Self-Harm--Sheri Van Dijk, MSW
"This concise, engaging, and well-organized workbook distills key DBT skills that can help with psychosis and related problems (stress, substance use, isolation, among others). Mullen paints a clear and reassuring picture of psychosis, and effectively uses vivid examples, worksheets and exercises to help readers understand their challenges and use DBT skills to manage them. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to become empowered with skills to build a life worth living despite psychosis."
--Alexander L. Chapman, PhD, RPsych, professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University, president of the DBT Centre of Vancouver, and coauthor of The Borderline Personality Disorder Survival Guide--Alexander L. Chapman, PhD, RPsych
"This excellent workbook makes a valuable contribution to the psychosocial treatment for people with psychosis. Writing in a clear, engaging style, Mullen shows how core dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills can be used to reduce symptoms associated with disorders on the psychotic spectrum, build a support network, and improve quality of life. The case examples make the book highly accessible to all. I recommend this workbook for patients, families, and therapists."
--Cedar R. Koons, LCSW, DBT consultant, mindfulness teacher, and author of The Mindfulness Solution for Intense Emotions--Cedar R. Koons, LCSW, DBT
"This skills workbook is a very useful development to accompany and support CBT for psychosis describing skills drawn from DBT. It includes detailed worksheets guiding the reader through ways of managing distress (including the use of mindfulness), which can remain even when insight into psychotic symptoms has developed."
--David Kingdon, MD, emeritus professor of mental health care delivery, and coauthor of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy of Schizophrenia--David Kingdon, MD
"This user-friendly workbook offers essential skills that help people learn how to manage symptoms of psychosis and build a life worth living. The material is offered with warmth, compassion, and understanding. The years of experience Maggie Mullen has had working with people who experience psychosis, and Mullen's fondness for them, permeates the book. I strongly recommend it to people who experience these symptoms and to their loved ones."
--Rebecca Woolis, LMFT, author of When Someone You Love Has a Mental Illness, over thirty years' experience as program director of community mental health programs for people with psychosis and their families, and therapist in private practice--Rebecca Woolis, LMFT
"When I started working with thought-disordered patients in 1973, we had nothing for them except Thorazine. Finally, there is an evidence-based treatment that doesn't result in tardive dyskinesia, metabolic syndrome, or suppressed awareness. TheDialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Psychosis offers a comprehensive, proven-effective program to help affected individuals deal with delusional thoughts and beliefs, surging fear, sadness and anger, and relationship disruption. These therapy processes--helping individuals face their pain and distress while building more effective responses--are the path to emotional and behavioral stability. This is the state of the art for nonmedical treatments of psychosis. It will change many lives."
--Matthew McKay, PhD, coauthor of Thoughts and Feelings--Matthew McKay, PhD
