In 'Building a Life Worth Living,' renowned psychologist Marsha Linehan shares her transformative journey from battling intense emotional turmoil to founding Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). This powerful memoir intertwines her personal struggles with mental illness and her pioneering work, offering profound insights into resilience and recovery. Readers will discover practical tools to cultivate a life rich with purpose and joy, even amidst pain. Linehan's candid narrative encourages introspection and challenges societal perceptions of mental health. Prepare to be inspired as she illuminates the path to thriving instead of merely surviving.
By Marsha Linehan
Published: 2020
"The path to a life worth living is not about avoiding pain, but about learning to face it with courage and compassion."
"Over the years, DBT had saved the lives of countless people fighting depression and suicidal thoughts, but Linehan had never revealed that her pioneering work was inspired by her own desperate struggles as a young woman. Only when she received this question did she finally decide to tell her story. In this remarkable and inspiring memoir, Linehan describes how, when she was eighteen years old, she began an abrupt downward spiral from popular teenager to suicidal young woman. After several miserable years in a psychiatric institute, Linehan made a vow that if she could get out of emotional hell, she would try to find a way to help others get out of hell too, and to build a life worth living. She went on to put herself through night school and college, living at a YWCA and often scraping together spare change to buy food. She went on to get her PhD in psychology, specializing in behavior therapy. In the 1980s, she achieved a breakthrough when she developed Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, a therapeutic approach that combines acceptance of the self and ways to change. Linehan included mindfulness as a key component in therapy treatment, along with original and specific life-skill techniques. She says, "You can't think yourself into new ways of acting; you can only act yourself into new ways of thinking.""
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“The path to a life worth living is not about avoiding pain, but about learning to face it with courage and compassion.”
Building a Life Worth Living
By Marsha Linehan
Discover a world of knowledge through our extensive collection of book summaries.
Marsha Linehan is a renowned psychologist and author, best known for developing Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), a groundbreaking approach to treating borderline personality disorder and other mental health conditions. Her notable works include 'Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder', 'Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder', and 'DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets'. Linehan’s writing style is characterized by a blend of empirical research and personal insight, offering both practical guidance and deep understanding of emotional regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and mindfulness.
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