BOOK: DBT for Life: Skills to Transform the Way You Live

DBT for Life is a self-help book that teaches skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Engaging and accessible, the book features full-color illustrations, graphics, and short stories illustrating how to use skills in real life.

As a therapy, DBT is arduous and often difficult to access.  DBT for Life provides a powerful way to connect with DBT Skills.

In DBT for Life, every chapter teaches one of the more significant skills.  Short stories feature composite characters based on emotionally sensitive clients, friends, family members, and the author's experience living as an emotionally sensitive person. Chapters also include a detailed explanation of the skill, ideas for practice, and plenty of supplemental material.

DBT for Life features a "choose your own adventure" style. You may read the book from cover to cover or read chapters out of order. Or you may choose stories based on the illustrations. Or select a chapter based on a skill they need at that moment. You can approach the book in whatever way is most effective for you.

Praise for DBT for Life: Skills to transform the way you live

"There are so many ways to engage with DBT for Life.  The stories, illustrations, graphics and straightforward language offer different types of learners easy access to the complex, evidence based toolkit of skills from Dialectical Behavior Therapy.  This is a wonderful work of heart, filled with wisdom and practical ways to enhance how our minds work and how our relationships can flourish in everyday life."

—Daniel, J., Siegel, MD celebrated psychiatrist, speaker, and New York Times best-selling author of Aware, IntraConnected, and Personality and Wholeness in Psychotherapy

"Diana Partington’s book, DBT for Life, is a rare gift. It is practical, eminently readable! —and at the same time literally has the power to change your life. DBT is the treatment of choice for those of us who struggle with reactivity, too-strong emotions that flood and leave us not living in our wisest, most centered ways. This clear, actionable rendering of DBT Skills immediately guides and empowers—it offers hope and freedom."

—Terrence Real, celebrated couples and family therapist, speaker and New York Times best-selling author of The New Rules of Marriage, How Can I get through to you and Us: Reconnect with your partner and build a loving and lasting relationship

"DBT for Life is an intentionally inclusive book. The diversity represented in the stories and illustrations send a clear message: All are welcome here. These skills are universally helpful for all of us."

—Deran Young, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, nationally recognized speaker, and Founder and CEO of Black Therapists Rock

"Diana Partington has written a book that is so practical, so readable, so empowering, and so effective that it stuns you just to pick it up. She really knows how to transform the way we live, and she uses the methodology DBT in a way that makes it graspable, finite, and totally implementable. Diana has done a great service for all of us in writing this practical, inspiring, and super brilliant book. Read it and grow who you are, into the person you've always wanted to be."

—Lynne Twist, Author of Soul of Money and Living a Committed Life

"Diana Partington’s book is a great resource and contribution to the field of DBT! It is extraordinarily friendly and accessible, with stories and illustrations that bring the tools to life in a vivid and approachable way regardless of age. The stories are contemporarily relevant even while the tools and use of them are deeply enduring. In my work with trauma across many ages and situations, I can see myself offering this book as a guide again and again."

—Gayle Karen Young, former Chief Culture and Talent officer of the Wikipedia Foundation, Human Rights Activist and Mentor

"I highly recommend DBT for Life to anyone interested in harnessing the power of DBT skills to improve their mental health and quality of life. Diana Partington has a remarkable ability to distill complex concepts into easily understandable language, allowing readers to grasp the principles of DBT with ease. Partington's expertise, coupled with the beautiful illustrations and practical insights, makes this book a must-have for anyone on their journey towards emotional well-being."

—Menahal Begawala, LMHC, Trauma specialist, Director of Haven Mental Health Counseling

"In my many years of leading DBT Skills Groups I have come across different iterations of the original skills training book from 1995. Diana Partington's book is as comprehensive as the original, but includes so much more. The materials are accessible and the anecdotes are invaluable - they really help one to see the skills in action. I enjoyed the added materials, such as the inclusion of the Emotional Set Point graph, the quotes from wise teachers, and the illustrations all serve to make it a complete interactive experience. I wish I had had this version when I started! I will be recommending it to my clients and colleagues."

—Sharla Mize, DBT Therapist and Trainer for PESI and           numerous agencies across the U.S.                                                                   

"Diana Partington has penned a meaningful - and very readable- collection of stories that teach life skills sorely missing in so many lives. Each chapter is laid out with intent and clarity, inviting the reader to learn a new skill.  Prior to this book, there were many skill-based DBT workbooks and clinically oriented publications, which tended to be factual, dry and left brain.  This book, on the other hand, is humorous, touching and real- capturing the imaginal mind of the reader.  Diana is a story-teller at heart; you'll see what I mean when you pick up a copy."    

—Patti Elledge, Trauma therapist, Somatic Mentor and creator of The Relational Salon