Book · 2014
DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets
by Marsha M. Linehan
Marsha Linehan's official worksheet companion for DBT skills training, used by clinics to put distress tolerance and emotion regulation into clients' hands.
What does Reddit think of DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets?
The weight sits in r/therapists, which accounts for two of those mentions. There, a PLPC recommends this alongside the DBT Skills Training Manual itself, framing the two as a natural pair: the manual for clinical grounding, the handouts for client-facing work. The second r/therapists thread is more skeptical in spirit, surfacing an internal DBT debate about whether opposite action is genuinely third-wave or a leftover from 2nd-wave CBT. That thread doesn't target the handouts directly, but it colors the room. r/attachment_theory's single mention (↑15) treats the workbook as a distress tolerance reference, pairing it with Six Pillars of Self-Esteem for a self-directed protocol. The book lands here as clinical infrastructure: less discussed than used.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Distress tolerance and urge surfing as core skill targets
- · Practitioner-to-practitioner recommendations over consumer discovery
- · Debate over DBT's theoretical coherence versus ACT and third-wave CBT
- · Client-facing complement to the clinical DBT Skills Training Manual
- · Self-directed use outside formal therapy contexts
Common praise
- + Clinics already using Marsha Linehan materials reach for this as the default client handout package.
- + The r/attachment_theory poster pairs it with distress tolerance and urge surfing work and finds it fit for purpose.
- + Practitioners in r/therapists treat it as a known quantity alongside the Skills Training Manual rather than an alternative to it.
Common criticism
- − The r/therapists thread on opposite action raises a structural question: some DBT components look like 2nd-wave CBT vestiges that contradict the therapy's own theory of change.
- − At three total mentions across seven years, this book generates almost no Reddit discussion, so any consensus here is extrapolated from very little data.
- − No commenter evaluates the handouts' pedagogical quality directly; the recommendations are about the Linehan brand, not the materials themselves.
Who it's for
If you are a therapist already working within a DBT framework, this is the worksheet infrastructure your clinic probably already uses. Graduate trainees in r/therapists are pointed here alongside the Skills Training Manual as a paired set. If you are coming from r/attachment_theory looking for distress tolerance tools you can use without a DBT program, one poster found it workable for self-directed urge surfing. People who want a debate about whether DBT's opposite action is theoretically sound will find that argument in the threads, but not in the handouts themselves.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“Fellow PLPC here! The DBT practice I work for uses all Marsha Linehan materials: Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder is going to be more focused on the clinical components and how to utilize DBT with clients. DBT Skills Training Manual is helpful for providing inform…
“1) DBT for distress tolerance and urge surfing - DBT Workbook 2) Self Esteem work - [6 Pillars of Self Esteem](
“Lots of things, it took me months to a year to learn them. First step I did was using an emotion chart whenever I felt something negative. I am often disconnected with my feelings so just having a chart to look at helped identify them One thing I highly recommend is this DBT book I've been followin…
“Check out a DBT therapy called TIP your body chemistry. Look for the distress tolerance handouts DBT Skills Training handouts Second Edition Tips is about being so in your head you can't escape an emotional flashback, so you tip your body. Here's it in a nutshell: If you don't have heart condit…
“I have the workbook for clients and for the facilitator. It's free DBT skills work book DBT skills training handouts and worksheets…
“If you have a copy of the DBT book (DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets) there are really useful handouts on starting on page 214. Each handout describes one emotion, and breaks it into sections like "Prompting Events", "Biological Changes", "Interpretation of Events that Prompt X Emotion", …
“>opposite action seems pretty ACT consistent.. No. It's a form of avoidance. The clinic I worked in referred to this as one of the vestiges of 2nd wave CBT in DBT, which contradicts the theory of change the rest of the therapy is grounded in. ​ >if you frame the action as valued or helpful…
“The only book on DBT that I have any experience with is: DBT® Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition It has a companion book for a therapist to use in guidance. I cannot speak to how well the bo…
“CBT is just institutionalized gaslighting. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy works. Created by a Zen master who was also a therapist, it brings Mindfulness into behavioral therapy. I found it to be very helpful when I first encountered it when I did a partial hospitalization program at our local men…
“Here is the list I give my grad students/supervisees (very basic) General: Body Keeps The Score by Besser Van De Kolk Boundaries by Townsend and Cloud Love’s Executioner by Irvin D. Yalom Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Fankl Recovery of Your Inner Child by Lucia Cappacione The Gifts of I…
Convinced? Pick up DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets
What else does r/therapists read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets — frequently asked
What does Reddit actually say about DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets?+
Not much, and mostly from practitioners. The r/therapists mentions frame it as standard Linehan clinic material, paired with the DBT Skills Training Manual. The r/attachment_theory mention (↑15) uses it as a distress tolerance reference for self-directed work. This is a known professional tool with negligible consumer discussion.
Is DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets meant for self-help or clinical use?+
Primarily clinical. r/therapists recommends it alongside the DBT Skills Training Manual as a client-facing complement to the practitioner manual. That said, the r/attachment_theory thread treats it as a workable self-directed resource for distress tolerance and urge surfing, so the line is blurry in practice.
How does DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets compare to the DBT Skills Training Manual?+
The r/therapists quote makes the division explicit: the Skills Training Manual covers clinical components and how to use DBT with clients; the Handouts and Worksheets book is the client-facing material. They are complementary, not interchangeable. The PLPC recommending both (↑17) works at a practice that uses all Linehan materials as a set.
Does Reddit raise any concerns about DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets?+
No one criticizes the handouts directly. The closest is a r/therapists thread (↑5) arguing that opposite action is a 2nd-wave CBT vestige that contradicts DBT's theory of change. That critique targets DBT's theoretical coherence, not this book specifically, but it is the most substantive critical thread in the data.