anna Woods; and my fellows and former fellows, Alex Chapman, Eunice Chen, Melanie Harned, Erin Miga, Marivi Navarro, and Nick Salsman. Many others have jumped in when asked, colleagues Seth Axelrod, Kate Comtois and her entire DBT team, Sona Dimidjian, Anthony Dubose, Thomas Lynch, and Suzanne Witterholt, as well as the Linehan Institute scientific advisory committee (Martin Bohus, Alan Fruzzetti, André Ivanoff, Kathryn Korslund, and Shelley McMain). I could not have written this book without the help of Elaine Franks, my fabulous administrative assistant, and Thao Truong, our office and financial manager, who made sure that our research clinic did not fall apart while everyone was waiting for me to finish this book. My family, Geraldine, Nate, Catalina, and Aline, made life easy at every turn no matter the stress—not a minor contribution to getting a book written.
Much of what is in this manual I learned from the many clients who partici -
pated in skills training groups that I have conducted over the years. I am grateful to all those who put up with the many versions that did not work or were not useful,