Review: DBT skills for Teena with Anxiety
Author: Atara Hiller

Rating: ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️4/5

As an adult who recently went through an intensive DBT training program I was very interested in what this book had to say.
I also have twin 11 year old daughters who both have sensory sensitivity issues, and as they prepare for their teen years I am doing my research on helpful tools for them to shore up this mental health in a way I was never able to do in my adolescence.

I think this book is a great tool to add to my collection. I appreciate the ways that the DBT language is communicated to teens in a way that is clear and accessible but not lacking any of the truth that I experienced in my DBT intensives. I read the ebook but I plan on buying a hard copy to have on hand for my daughters!

I was looking for something just like this to use with my teen and tween for some social-emotional learning. Both of my kids tend to struggle with perfectionism (and its cousin, anxiety) -- so a book FULL of tools is exactly what we needed!

School social worker here! This was a really helpful book for lesson planning student groups, thinking about IEP goals, and working with students in general. I am always, always looking for more resources like these, especially targeted towards teens.

As a mental health professional working with adolescents, I use DBT skills on a regular basis. I am always looking for new and creative ways to introduce skills that are helpful for the teens I work with outside of the therapy room. Hiller does a great job of explaining the importance of each practice along with easy to follow ways of doing the skill that is really helpful for teens to follow along.

This isn't a new topic, and Hiller definitely doesn't reinvent the wheel, but this is a great tool kit for making this easy to follow for adolescents and providing a step by step implementation of practices.

I was familiar with a few strategies that were included in the book and they're strategies I often use with my students. I also learned about many other strategies that I can incorporate in the classroom (many of my students have test anxiety). I found these strategies can be helpful to many of my students and I will definitely be recommending this to book to them as well as purchasing a couple of copies to keep in the classroom.

A helpful guidebook with a collection of content that extends beyond anxiety, involving skills such as mindfulness that will assist in overcoming mental health disorders and illnesses. Although majority of the content isn't new, the guidance is accessible and includes simple exercises.

Thank you to the author and the publisher for this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Although I'm not a teen, I have been struggling with anxiety since I was one and I found that this book actually helped me and gave me some useful tips as well! I liked the way that the voice was very simple and accessible, something that I think would be perfect for a younger audience. The tips that it gave were simple and had very concrete examples of how to put them to use in the real world, making them feel more concrete and easier to put to use in the real world and off the page after reading the book is done. I already knew about the 54321 method and use it when I find myself struggling with panic attacks, but this book introduced me to a lot of brand new skills (like urge surfing) that I'll definitely be keeping in mind in the future. For teens struggling with their mental health, these skills are easy to remember and execute in stressful moments and this book would be a wonderful asset to a teenager having issues with their anxiety spiking.

Do you have teens, work with teens, or know teens? Better yet, do you have emotions, or know anybody who has emotions? Because this book isn't just for teens with anxiety. It's a helpful guidebook for anybody who wants to improve how they show up in emotionally charged situations. None of the guidance is new, but it's packaged and explained in simple situation-specific exercises without being so formulaic that one couldn't apply the skills in a variety of ways. Much like Anxiety Relief for Teens by Regine Galanti, this is a book I would expect to see in school counseling offices, mental health clinics, libraries, hospitals, and homes. I have already pre-ordered a personal copy.

This book piqued my interest because it hist close to home in my family. I goes over DBT strategies for anxiety and is written for teenagers specifically. The examples are well geared for teenage situations and I can see it being useful as an accompaniment to additional support, but it may me limited on it's own to the teenage reader's receptiveness or even ability to go through the different exercises on their own.

Regardless of age, this book is very useful to utilize DBT skills. It is an excellent resource to practice DBT and practice mindfulness in your thoughts and actions to overcome not just anxiety, but also BPD and trauma related mental illness.