Resources

Therapists can treat shame, guilt, and self-hatred with opposite action and other effective strategies in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, developed by Marsha Linehan. www.dbtsandiego.com

Dialectical behavior therapy for adolescents and young adults (DBT) is a clinical program within the Young Adult and Family Center that targets high risk, multi-problem adolescents. We specialize in identifying and treating depression and risky behavior in adolescents, including self-injury, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, substance use, binging and purging, risky sexual behavior, physical fighting, and other forms of risk-taking. DBT has been adapted by Alec Miller and Jill Rathus from Marsha Linehan’s initial conceptualization of DBT, which was developed for adults diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Our adaptation follows the work of Miller and Rathus, who originally modified DBT for use with teens. Our program targets five areas: Confusion about self Impulsivity Emotional instability Interpersonal problems Parent-teen problems The treatment has been shown to be effective in treating self-harming adolescents with depression who demonstrate some traits of borderline personality disorder that are beyond that expected of typical adolescent development. Depression in adolescence is characterized by depressed or irritable mood, changes in appetite and sleep, withdrawal from and loss of interest in usual activities and friends, feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness, agitation and/or fatigue, difficulty concentrating, difficulty making decisions, and suicidal ideation. Some traits of borderline personality disorder that may be of concern to teens and parents include: unstable sense of self, unstable interpersonal relationships, inappropriate or uncontrollable anger or other emotions, serious mood swings, recurrent self-harm or and/or suicide attempts, chronic feelings of emptiness, and impulsivity that puts the teen at risk. Teens and young adults referred to the DBT Program typically have many or all of the problems listed above, which can lead to difficulties fulfilling their obligations in school and at home. This perpetuates their negative ideas about themselves.

This webinar is intended primarily to give parents a way to begin to understand what they might not be saying but might mean when they say things like, “I’m fine” or answer questions with, “I don’t know.” Sometimes these statements are accurate, and often they are not. So, how can we tell? What can we do? This webinar is designed to give you a basic “universal translator,” an approach to cracking the code and beginning to understand what might be more accurate.

The third TIP Skill, paced breathing. Taught by Dr. Shireen Rizvi Illustrated by Jesse Finkelstein Paced Breathing Instructions: Breath in deeply through your nose (abdominal breathing) for four seconds and then breathe out through your mouth (for six seconds). Do this for 1-2 minutes.

This video describes the DBT Skill of Radical Acceptance. This video was made possible through funding from the Rutgers Center for COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness (Principal Investigators: Shireen L. Rizvi, Ph.D. & Evan M. Kleiman, Ph.D.) Thanks to Annmarie Wacha-Montes, Psy.D. and members of the DBT-RU and the Kleiman Lab for their contributions. Illustrations by Jesse Finkelstein

© 2025 National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder

This video describes the DBT Skill of Distract using ACCEPTS. This video was made possible through funding from the Rutgers Center for COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness (Principal Investigators: Shireen L. Rizvi, Ph.D. & Evan M. Kleiman, Ph.D.) Thanks to Annmarie Wacha-Montes, Psy.D. and members of the DBT-RU and the Kleiman Lab for their contributions. Illustrations by Jesse Finkelstein

This video shows how emotions work and how this understanding illustrates emotion regulation opportunities (Emotion Regulation Handout 5 "Model for Describing Emotions"). www.dbtsandiego.com