Personal
During a speech at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut on June 17, 2011, Dr. Linehan disclosed that she suffered from borderline personality disorder. In an article published at the New York Times website on June 23, 2011, she disclosed her own history of self-harm and multiple suicide attempts, as well as her own efforts through therapy to recover from the disorder and live a healthy, productive life.
Dr. Linehan developed DBT as a result of her own transformation that occurred in 1967, while she prayed in a small Catholic chapel in Chicago. She describes the situation in detail; "One night I was kneeling in there, looking up at the cross, and the whole place became gold—and suddenly I felt something coming toward me… It was this shimmering experience, and I just ran back to my room and said, “I love myself.” It was the first time I remembered talking to myself in the first person. I felt transformed." Linehan, then, takes this “radical acceptance,” as she calls it, and incorporates it into the techniques of cognitive behavioral therapy meant to change the harmful behavior of a self-cutter or a person who battles chronic suicidal ideations. In essence, DBT strives for a balance between acceptance and change, or integrating contradictory philosophies (“you are loved the way you are,” however, “you must strive to change”).
Read more about this topic: Marsha M. Linehan
Famous quotes containing the word personal:
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