A clear and effective approach to learning evidence-based DBT skills-now in a fully revised and updated second edition. Do you have trouble managing your emotions? First developed by Marsha M. Linehan for treating borderline personality disorder, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has proven effective as treatment for a range of other mental health problems, and can greatly improve your ability to handle distress without losing control and acting destructively. However, to make use of these techniques, you need to build skills in four key areas: distress tolerance, mindfulness, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, a collaborative effort from three esteemed authors, offers evidence-based, step-by-step exercises for learning these concepts and putting them to work for real and lasting change. Start by working on the introductory exercises and, after making progress, move on to the advanced-skills chapters. Whether you're a mental health professional or a general reader, you'll benefit from this clear and practical guide to better managing your emotions. This fully revised and updated second edition also includes new chapters on cognitive rehearsal, distress tolerance, and self-compassion. Once you've completed the exercises in this book and are ready to move on to the next level, check out the authors' new book, The New Happiness Workbook. This book has been awarded The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Seal of Merit - an award bestowed on outstanding self-help books that are consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) principles and that incorporate scientifically tested strategies for overcoming mental health difficulties. Used alone or in conjunction with therapy, our books offer powerful tools readers can use to jump-start changes in their lives.

From balancing work and relationships to navigating financial challenges and health issues-in our hectic and busy lives, stress is simply unavoidable. Fortunately, there are proven-effective techniques you can use every day to combat the negative effects of stress and integrate healthy relaxation habits into your life. The powerful yet simple writing practices in this guided journal can help you get started today. In The Stress Relief Guided Journal, you'll explore your own stress response and triggers, and create a personalized action plan for stress reduction. Grounded in evidence-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), the prompts in this journal integrate a variety of stress-relieving methods you can implement in your life when stress becomes overwhelming-including progressive relaxation, self-hypnosis, visualization, and mindfulness. If you're looking to find a place of calm and respite in the midst of our busy world, this journal can be that place. Just write, explore, and make it yours. Written by renowned mental health and wellness experts, New Harbinger's Journals for Change combine evidence-based psychology with proven-effective guided journaling techniques to help you make lasting personal change-one page at a time.

Conquer your self-defeating beliefs and create a more fulfilling life! Do you feel like you're broken? Are you depressed because you believe that you're somehow defective, unwanted, or inferior? Do you feel self-conscious and insecure, constantly comparing yourself to others? Are you sensitive to criticism, or terrified of rejection? Feeling flawed and inadequate often stems from negative childhood experiences. If you grew up in a highly critical environment, you might feel unworthy of being loved, or have a deep sense of shame about your perceived defects. You may tell yourself there is something inherently wrong with you that prevents you from forming satisfying relationships, finding happiness, and succeeding in life. So, how can free yourself from the self-defeating beliefs that keep you trapped in the depths of depression? Grounded in evidence-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), this workbook will give you the tools to identify and dismiss your core beliefs of personal defectiveness, and build a life based on positive choices and values that bring vitality and a sense of personal fulfillment. You'll discover ways to develop psychological flexibility, freeing yourself from old habits and unhealthy coping mechanisms, and alleviating symptoms of depression. Finally, you'll learn to see yourself in all your wonderful complexity, with kindness and compassion. The truth is you are not broken, and painful memories of the past do not have to dictate your future. If you're ready to heal and treat yourself to the care and compassion you deserve, this book will show you how.

How to continue to love in the face of pain and loss * Shows how the certainty of change and loss can support rather than diminish love * Shares practices and meditations to help love endure in the face of loss, disappointment, change, or any of the ways relationships and circumstances are altered by time * Explores how to cultivate gratitude for every expression of love we encounter, strengthen compassion for others, and recognize the power of love after life Collaborating with his late son, Jordan, psychologist Matthew McKay offers five ways to keep love alive in a world of impermanence. He explores how to see and know what we love, how to actively care for what we love, how to have compassion for the suffering of others, how to set the daily intention to act with love, and how to turn toward rather than away from the pain of impermanence. McKay shares practices and meditations to help love endure in the face of loss, disappointment, change, or any of the ways relationships and circumstances are altered by time. He examines what love is and is not, including how not to mistake yearning and neediness for love, sex for love, and attraction to beauty for love. He shows how to cultivate gratitude for every expression of love we encounter, learn to care for things we don't like, and recognize the power of love after life--a love that reaches beyond death. He also provides concrete exercises for communicating with and channeling messages from loved ones who have crossed over. Ultimately, McKay shows that, by running from pain, we run from love. By avoiding pain, we lose the pathway to connection. Yet, by recognizing love in the heart of pain and loss, by knowing that change and impermanence are inevitable, we can navigate life with a compass pointing to love as true north, learning to love more deeply and making what we love more cherished.

Based on the best-selling The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, this powerful and portable card deck presents 52 practices to help you balance your emotions and improve your life! First developed for treating borderline personality disorder, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has proven effective as treatment for a range of other mental health problems, especially for those characterized by overwhelming emotions. Now, you can easily and quickly access this powerful therapy method in bite-sized pieces. On each card, you'll find: Highly effective mindfulness strategies to help you stay grounded Tips to help you improve relationships Skills for emotion regulation and distress tolerance Whether you're a therapist looking for unique client resources, a teacher, a parent, or simply seeking to balance your own emotions, this card deck offers daily wisdom and evidence-based skills for lasting peace, happiness, and well-being.

No matter how #blessed you are, sometimes life can feel downright overwhelming. Whether it's a breakup or divorce, the loss of a job, or even a global pandemic, you may need a little extra help managing the difficult emotions that can arise when things are not going so great. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is a proven-effective and evidence-based treatment that can help you find balance and improve your ability to handle adversity without losing control and acting destructively. This potent and portable guide focuses on one of the core skills of DBT: distress tolerance. With this book, you'll learn that you are strong enough to weather life's storms. You can handle whatever stress or setback life throws your way. And you can face your own difficult thoughts and feelings head on-without avoidance, anger, or despair. Life happens. But you don't have to get pulled under. With Distress Tolerance Made Easy, you'll learn tons of tips and tricks to help you keep your cool-even when those emotional triggers strike. Why not keep a copy on your nightstand, in your glove box, or on your work desk? You never know when you'll need it!

The comprehensive workbook for radically transforming your life—now in a fully revised and updated 40th anniversary edition!If you are depressed, anxious, angry, worried, confused, frustrated, upset, or ashamed, please remember that you are not alone in your struggle with painful feelings and experiences. Everybody experiences emotional distress sometimes. It’s normal. But when the pain becomes too strong and too enduring, it’s time to take that important first step toward feeling better.This fully revised and updated fifth edition of Thoughts and Feelings outlines twenty evidence-based techniques you can mix and match to create your own personal treatment plan for overcoming a range of mental health concerns—including worry, panic attacks, depression, low self-esteem, anger, and emotional and behavioral challenges of any kind. Customize your plan to address multiple concerns at once, or troubleshoot the thoughts and feelings that bother you most.Used and recommended by the most renowned and respected therapists, this comprehensive mental health workbook offers all of the best psychological tools for quickly regaining mastery over your moods and emotions. It has already helped thousands of readers: ·Challenge self-sabotaging patterns of thinking ·Practice relaxation techniques to maintain self-control in stressful situations ·Change the core beliefs that drive painful emotions ·Identify and prioritize values for a more focused, fulfilling life Using proven-effective methods based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and mindfulness, habit reversal, self-compassion, and more, this book will help you balance your emotions and start feeling better—about yourself, and about the world around you. It’s time, finally, to feel fully alive.

The much-anticipated fourth edition of the best-selling classic by Matthew McKay, Self-Esteem is the go-to guide for those seeking to increase their sense of self-worth. This fully revised new edition features an innovative application of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to self-esteem and utilizes updated cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help readers create positive change and thrive. If you struggle with low self-esteem, or you're seeking positive and effective ways of building a healthy sense of self-worth, this much-anticipated fourth edition of the best-selling classic by Matthew McKay is your go-to guide. This fully revised edition features an innovative application of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to self-esteem, and utilizes updated cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you create positive change and thrive. Circumstances and status can affect self-esteem-many factors can contribute to the way we see ourselves-but the one contributing factor that all people who struggle with low self-esteem have in common is our thoughts. Of course we all have a better chance of feeling good about ourselves when things are going well, but it's really our interpretation of our circumstances that can cause trouble, regardless of what they are. This revised and updated fourth edition of the best-selling Self-Esteem uses proven-effective methods of CBT and relevant components of ACT to help you raise low self-esteem by working on the way you interpret your life. You'll learn how to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy self-esteem, how to uncover and analyze negative self-statements, and how to create new, more objective and positive self-statements to support your self-esteem rather than undermine it. And with cutting-edge material on defusion and values, you'll learn to let go of judgmental, self-attacking thoughts and act in accordance with what matters to you most, enhancing your sense of self-worth. If you struggle with low or unhealthy self-esteem, this new edition of Self-Esteem, packed with evidence-based tips and techniques, has everything you need to improve the way you see yourself for better overall well-being.

A channeled guide to the life-death transition experience and how to prepare for the wonders of the afterlife * Reveals the afterlife as a fluid realm of imagination and invention, a luminous landscape created entirely of consciousness * Explains how to navigate the early stages of the afterlife, how we learn and grow in the spirit world, and how to release anxiety about the end of life * Includes exercises and meditations to prepare you for navigating and communicating in spirit There is no better source of information on death and the afterlife than someone who has died and lives in spirit. Channeling his late son, Jordan, psychologist Matthew McKay offers a postdeath guide for the living, revealing in vivid detail what to expect when we die and how to prepare for the wonders of the afterlife. Specifically describing the transition experience and the early stages of the afterlife, including how to navigate each stage, Jordan shows how death is a fluid realm of imagination and invention, a luminous landscape created entirely of consciousness. He explains how a soul that has newly crossed over is an amnesiac, arriving without senses, a nervous system, and all that has anchored us to the world. Jordan details how to navigate without a body, how we learn and grow in the spirit world, and how to release anxiety about the end of life and instead view it as another stage of being. He shows that the inferno described by Dante is an optional nightmare caused by thought projections that overwhelm the newly transitioned soul, and he reveals that the bardos are where souls who are beset with fear and false beliefs spend time learning and recovering. Providing profound relief from the fear of death, as well as exercises to prepare you for navigating and communicating in spirit, Jordan's message reveals how love is the bonding element that holds all of consciousness--and the afterlife--together. McKay also documents the unbreakable bond between the living and the dead and teaches the skill of channeling, allowing you to connect to loved ones who have passed.

Write and chart to restore emotional balance with this evidence-based diary. Do you struggle with intense emotions? Difficult emotions like anger, fear, sadness, guilt, and shame are part of being human; but when they get out of control, these emotions can also cause us severe pain. When you're in the grip of an emotional storm, it's all too easy to overreact, lash out at others, or become angry with yourself. Fortunately, there is help. Dialectical behavior therapy, or DBT, can help you find inner calm when your feelings become too painful or out of your control. And one of the key elements of a DBT treatment protocol is keeping a diary to chart your emotions. From the authors of the self-help classic, The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, this diary offers daily writing prompts to help you master and chart your progress using the core skills of dialectical behavior therapy-mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance. Most importantly, you'll find practical ways to put these skills to work, every day. With this fully revised and updated second edition, you will: *Learn new techniques to use when you feel overwhelmed *Observe and record your progress each day *Find out which coping strategies work best for you *Discover nutrition and lifestyle changes that can make you feel better The diary also includes new skills based on recent DBT research; exercises using exposure-based cognitive rehearsal (EBCR); and space for you to monitor your successes, chart your progress, and stay on track making productive changes in your life.

A quick-relief guide for calming anxiety and stress right now-during the COVID-19 pandemic If you're feeling unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety right now, please know that you aren't alone. In these extreme and uncertain times, it's natural to be in a constant state of mental and physical strain. Whether you're dealing with job loss, a sick loved one, or just feeling the weight of the world during your 2 a.m. doomscroll-you need quick tools you can use right now, whenever and wherever you are, to lower stress and soothe anxiety. This emergency kit has you covered. Written by a dream team of mental health experts and grounded in evidence-based therapy, The Anxiety First Aid Kit offers powerful tools for triaging stress and anxiety in the moments when you need it most. You'll find easy and doable ways to help you press pause on panic, and find your calm spot right away. You'll discover in-the-moment interventions to help you relax before your anxiety and stress go into overdrive. And finally, you'll learn how to make healthy and workable lifestyle changes to improve your mental health and increase resilience, so you can effectively deal with stressful situations in the future-no matter what life throws at you. Between pandemic-related economic fears, the frustrations of social distancing, indoor confinement, work and household double duties (now including homeschooling!), and the looming threat of serious illness, is it any wonder you're feeling completely stressed out and anxious? If you need immediate relief, The Anxiety First Aid Kit has everything you need to manage stress and anxiety-right now.

Powerful and customizable tools grounded in process-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you heal emotional pain and live a vital, values-based life Do you struggle with overwhelming emotions, such as anger, anxiety, sadness, shame, or self-blame? Emotions--even intensely distressing ones--are a natural part of life. But if your emotions are so intense that they're hurting your relationships or getting in the way of your happiness, it's time for a change. Written by a team of mental health experts, Healing Emotional Pain Workbook is a step-by-step guide to understanding your emotions and enhancing your overall well-being. Rather than a one-size-fits-all treatment, this workbook takes a tailored approach to help you treat the root cause of your emotional pain--whether it's avoidance, internalization, or rumination. As a result, you'll create a personalized plan to help you overcome intense emotions and live the life you want. With this workbook, you'll learn to: Stop avoiding and start showing up to your life Replace self-blame with self-compassion Make decisions based on your values, not your emotions Break free from repetitive negative thinking Increase psychological flexibility Accept your thoughts and emotions--rather than trying to outrun them! When our emotions spiral out of control, they can result in chronic mental suffering. This workbook can help you change the way you react to emotions, before they negatively impact your life.

Parental anger is a real problem for children and parents. Children may react by being less caring and concerned for others, less accepting of themselves. They are more likely to develop problems at school, in relationships, with drugs, and the law. This book helps parents who know they are angry too often to identify the trigger points that lead to anger, and to see these points as mistaken beliefs about their children's behaviour, temperament, needs and development. It gives parents a realistic understanding of why their children act the way they do, and dissipate their anger as a result. By changing trigger-happy thoughts into problem-solving discussions, this is a book that can really change parenting for better for both the parents and the children.

Quick skills grounded in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you find lasting relief from the painful thoughts that drive anxiety, depression, and more. In today's increasingly uncertain world, it's natural to feel anxious, scared, sad, lonely, angry, worried, or hopeless. Everybody experiences intense emotions sometimes. It's normal. But when the pain becomes too strong and too enduring, it's time for a change. CBT is widely regarded as the gold standard in psychotherapy for treating anxiety and depression. Based on the self-help classic, Thoughts and Feelings, this take-anywhere guide offers distilled CBT skills you can use anytime to challenge the negative thinking that leads to anxiety and depression, balance your emotions, and start engaging in activities that make you feel good about yourself. Most importantly, you'll learn how your thoughts affect your mood, and how changing your thoughts can actually change your life! This super simple guide presents the most effective therapy for managing anxiety and depression in an easy-to-read format that therapists can refer to clients, and readers can refer to again and again.

Love takes work, but, when it comes to relationships, it pays to work smarter. This book, a revised and updated edition of a therapist-recommended classic, shows you how to work smarter in your relationship. This book helps you improve communication, cope better with problems, and resolve conflicts in healthy and creative ways. Each chapter teaches an essential skill, based on cognitive behavioral therapy, which can lead to greater happiness and deeper intimacy. New in this edition is a chapter on using acceptance skills, developed from the revolutionary new acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which help you learn to accept your partner without judgment and structure your relationship based on a consciously chosen set of core values.

In Pocket Therapy for Emotional Balance, three clinical psychologists and authors of The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook offer quick, evidence-based tips and tools for managing intense emotions in the moment. Using this handy, take-anywhere guide, readers will find freedom from overwhelming thoughts and feelings, find a sense of calm, and live a more balanced life. Bite-sized, evidence based tips and tools for managing intense emotions in the moment-from the authors of The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook!Sometimes emotions can feel like a big, powerful tidal wave that will sweep you away. And the more you try to suppress or put a lid on these emotions, the more overwhelming they get. So, how can you feel better when difficult emotions threaten to wash over you?In this take-anywhere pocket guide, clinical psychologists and authors Matt McKay, Jeffrey Wood, and Jeffrey Brantley offer quick and simple strategies based in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) to help you take charge of your emotions and start living the life you want. Using this handy little book, you'll find freedom from overwhelming thoughts and feelings, discover a sense of lasting calm, improve your relationships, and feel more at peace with the world and yourself.If you're looking for small, easy ways to manage your emotions on the go, put this compact guide in your coat pocket, your purse, on your nightstand, or anywhere for quick and soothing relief.

Today's teens are totally stressed. Based on the self-help classic, The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook, this evidence-based guide will help you develop a game plan for reducing stress so you can focus on reaching your goals. Are you feeling stressed out? You aren't alone. Between school, tests, friendships, dating, the latest drama on social media, college applications, and a bunch of confusing physical changes, it's no wonder that stress is a major mental health issue for many of today's teens. The good news is that there are simple ways you can reduce your stress and reach your goals. This workbook will show you how. With The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens, you'll learn to understand the underlying causes of your stress. You'll discover practical mindfulness and breathing techniques to help you calm your mind and body in moments of worry and anxiety. You'll also find tips for moving past "what ifs" and "shoulds," strategies for managing negative thoughts and emotions, and tools to help you develop your own personalized plan for dealing with stress. If you're ready to move past stress and worry and start focusing on your bright future, this workbook has everything you need to get started today. Teens need mental health resources more than ever. With over 1.2 million copies sold worldwide, Instant Help Books for teens are engaging, proven-effective, and recommended by therapists.

You are stronger than your anxiety! In this important workbook, best-selling authors Matthew McKay, Patrick Fanning, and Michelle Skeen offer a breakthrough anxiety solution based in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help you understand and overcome your fears and worries, rather than try to avoid them. If you suffer from an anxiety disorder, you may try to avoid situations that cause you to feel worry, fear, or panic. You may even believe that terrible things will happen to you if you face the things that make you anxious. But avoidance isn't a long-term solution, and in the end it may result in more anxiety. This book shows you how the simple belief that you can endure your worries and fears-both mentally and physically-can be an extremely powerful treatment. Using a breakthrough approach combining proven-effective CBT and exposure therapy, this workbook helps you understand how worry and rumination drive anxiety, and offers practical exercises to help you adopt new habits of observing your thoughts, rather than accepting them as the "ultimate truth." You'll also develop mindfulness and self-soothing coping skills to help you manage anxiety in the moment, rather than avoid it. Over time these practices will show you that you are more powerful than your anxiety. If you've been stuck in a cycle of anxiety and avoidance, this workbook will help you make the changes you need to get your life back.

"A practical, easy-to-follow guide to getting control of your anger so that you can live a more productive life today. ... Rather than get angry, get this book."-Robert L. Leahy, PhD, director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy We all get angry sometimes. But if you feel angry all of time-and if your anger makes others uncomfortable, creates distance in your relationships, disrupts your ability to think clearly and make good decisions, or otherwise results in behaviors that you regret or find embarrassing later-it's time to make a change. Written by two clinical psychologists with decades of experience using cognitive behavioral interventions to treat anger, Anger Management for Everyone provides a comprehensive, research-based program to keep anger in its place. This revised and updated second edition includes new information on the environmental effects on anger, such as hunger and sleep; new progressive muscle relaxation and mindfulness exercises; and new strategies and tips for improving social and interpersonal skills. With the authors' enhanced "Anger Episode Model," and the ten proven-effective skills for anger management in this helpful guide, you'll come to better understand and control your problem anger, learn how to cope with everyday disappointments and frustrations, and experience more happiness, success, and vitality in all areas of your life.

Relationships take work. In this much-anticipated book, best-selling author Matthew McKay and psychologist Avigail Lev present the ten most common relationship schemas, and provide an evidence-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) treatment protocol for professionals to help clients overcome the barriers that hold them back in their relationships. Romantic relationships are a huge challenge for many of us, as evidenced by our high divorce rates. But what is it that causes so much pain and discord in many relationships? In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Couples, Matthew McKay and Avigail Lev provide the first ACT-based treatment protocol for couples that identifies the ten most common relationship schemas-and the coping behaviors they drive-to help you guide clients through their pain and toward solutions that reflect the needs and values of the couple. Rather than working to stop relationship schemas from being triggered or to reduce schema pain, you'll be able to help your clients observe and name what triggers their rigid coping behaviors when their schemas are activated. And by learning new skills when they're triggered, your clients will be able to replace avoidant and coping behaviors with values-based action for the betterment of the relationship. By making your clients' avoidant behavior the target of treatment- as opposed to their thoughts and beliefs-this skills-based guide provides the tools you need to help your clients change how they respond to their partner.