Stronger Than BPD: The Girl's Guide to Taking Control of Intense Emotions, Drama, and Chaos Using DBT

by Debbie Corso BSc, Gillian Galen PsyD (Foreword by)

Overview

You are strong! No matter what anyone says, you can heal the symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD). In this unique guide, influential BPD advocate and blogger Debbie Corso offers an easy-to-use primer on dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), as well as powerful peer-to-peer support for managing your worst BPD symptoms.

If you have BPD, you may experience extreme emotional ups and downs. These intense feelings can make navigating everyday life that much more difficult, and as a result, you may have trouble maintaining relationships, seeing yourself clearly, or reaching career goals. You should know that you are not alone, and that BPD isn’t your fault. Most importantly, you need to know that you are strong. With the right tools, you can overcome the symptoms of your BPD—this book will show you how.

Written by a BPD survivor and advocate, Stronger Than BPD offers practical, evidence-based dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills to help you manage the intense emotions and negative self-image that can occur with BPD. This easy-to-use guide helps you apply the fundamental components of DBT—such as mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness—to everyday situations that can trigger your symptoms. And through personal examples and real-life stories, you’ll see how others have put these skills to work in their own lives to get relief. You’ll even learn how social media can help you heal!

BPD is a part of your life, but it doesn’t have to define you. If you are ready to take control of your symptoms using powerful, evidence-based DBT skills, this friendly guide will light the way.

This book has been selected as an Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Self-Help Book Recommendation—an honor 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626254954
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	04/01/2017
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	1,074,268
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Debbie Corso is a mental health blogging pioneer, courageously chronicling her journey while lighting a torch to provide hope to a severely emotionally wounded community. She has a BS in behavioral science, communications, and English from the New York Institute of Technology in interdisciplinary studies, as well as a certificate in early childhood development. She is a certified Emotional Confidence Life Coach, and is also in recovery from borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Through hard, consistent work using dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), she no longer meets the criteria to be considered “borderline.” Her work as an intake coordinator and case manager at a nonprofit organization, working closely with children at risk for abuse and neglect, was the catalyst that propelled her to document and share her powerful journey through her blog, and hopeful and encouraging books on overcoming the oppressive symptoms of BPD. She currently cofacilitates worldwide DBT psychoeducational courses online at www.emotionallysensitive.com, and is author of Stronger Than BPD. Corso resides in Northern California.


Gillian Galen, PsyD, is instructor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. She is program director and assistant director of training for McLean 3East Intensive Residential Program at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital—a unique residential DBT program for young women exhibiting self-endangering behaviors and BPD traits. She specializes in adolescent psychotherapy, including DBT. She has a particular interest in using mindfulness and yoga in the treatment of BPD and other psychiatric illnesses. Galen has been a registered yoga instructor since 2008. She is coauthor of Mindfulness for Borderline Personality Disorder.

Table of Contents

Foreword v

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Paying Attention to Your Life (on Purpose) 15

Chapter 2 Coping Effectively with Distress 59

Chapter 3 Regulating Your Emotions 85

Chapter 4 Working on Relationships 117

Chapter 5 Putting It All Together 165

Thank You 169

References 173

Interviews

Corso resides in Woodside, CA.

Editorial Reviews

“Stronger than BPD feels like a best friend holding my hand while I learn practical tools that really work for managing my emotions.”
—Tamra Sattler, PhD, MFT, therapist, researcher, and entrepreneur


“Debbie has written a wise and wonderful book for those who struggle with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Stronger than BPD provides an honest look at recovery while inspiring all of us to be our very best through more skillful living. I’m exceptionally proud to recommend this book to my clients and their family members.”
—Amanda L. Smith, LMSW, dialectical behavior therapist and treatment consultant, and author of The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Wellness Planner


“This book offers you a set of skills from someone who has been there. These are not theoretical experiences but instead the help and reflections that come from someone who has been there to those going through real-time struggles. A great addition to the literature.”
—Blaise Aguirre, MD, medical director at McLean 3East Continuum of Care, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and coauthor of Mindfulness for Borderline Personality Disorder



“Written with the wisdom of one who has both suffered and lived in the solution, Debbie Corso’s Stronger than BPD is a unique and highly accessible guide for those struggling with BPD traits, and the people who support them. Through powerful personal examples and with the clarity of a seasoned professional, Corso teaches the reader, step by step, to apply dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills to the storms of emotional turmoil and turbulent relationships. The author’s hard-won success is an inspiration and testament to the power of DBT to heal and create lives truly worth living. Perfect as a stand-alone workbook as well as a complement to clinical support, Stronger than BPD is a remarkable guide that will change lives and bring new understanding to the practice of DBT.”
—Kiera Van Gelder, MFA, author of the highly acclaimed memoir, The Buddha and the Borderline



“DBT is touted by thousands of clinicians all over the globe. This book raises the bar because it describes survivors’ lived experience—the most important testimonial of all. Congratulations to Debbie!”
—Perry D. Hoffman, PhD, president and cofounder of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEA.BPD)

From the Publisher