The book Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Clinical Practice: Applications Across Disorders and Settings

came into my life at just the right time. I had finally convinced a large outpatient community mental health center to explore the possibilities of starting some form of a dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) program. I had run a training and service program through this center for several years. Not surprisingly, I had become aware of a number of clients who met criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD) who were eating up vast amounts of therapists ' time and center resources. Yet, in the first meeting, a range of very practical questions arose that would challenge even the best of us as advocates of evidence-based practices. “Should we adopt the entire DBT protocol, or can we adapt it? ” “If we adapt it to our needs, what are the costs and benefits of leaving components out? ” “How broad or tight must we be in selecting clients for inclusion in this program? ” “What really will be the costs and benefits of this? ” “How can we prevent burnout in the clinicians doing this? ” “How can we simply collect evidence of the effectiveness of this program as we bring it up? ” And these were only the beginning. In practice, many of the foundation chapters of this fine text helped answer all of these questions and more in a very clear and practical style. Having both administrators and practitioners read selected chapters both set some questions to rest and directed the implementation team to work productively in new directions