Back From the Edge

Marsha Linehan Acknowledges Her Own Struggle with Borderline Personality Disorder

The patient wanted to know, and her therapist — Marsha M. Linehan of the University of Washington, creator of a treatment used worldwide for severely suicidal people — had a ready answer. It was the one she always used to cut the question short, whether a patient asked it hopefully, accusingly or knowingly, having glimpsed the macrame of faded burns, cuts and welts on Dr. Linehan’s arms: “You mean, have I suffered?” “No, Marsha,” the patient replied, in an encounter last spring. “I mean one of us. Like us. Because if you were, it would give all of us so much hope.”

“That did it,” said Dr. Linehan, 68, who told her story in public for the first time last week before an audience of friends, family and doctors at the Institute of Living, the Hartford clinic where she was first treated for extreme social withdrawal at age 17. “So many people have begged me to come forward, and I just thought — we

 The patient wanted to know, and her therapist — Marsha Linehan said, "I have to do this. I owe it to them. I cannot die a coward.”
If you would like to read the rest of this article and/or a fascinating article in the New York Times please go to the link below.

By JOHN M. GROHOL, PSY.D.
 http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/06/27/marsha-linehan-acknowledges-her-own-struggle-with-borderline-personality-disorder/

For a great video treatment on borderline personality disorder which includes Linehan, patients and other experts please go to Back to Edge at the link below. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=967Ckat7f98

 The author of this blog, Steve Bloem trained under Dr. Linehan during the years 1996 and 1997. The very useful training took place at the Unviversity of Washington in Seattle. Steve and his team started a DBT program in Grand Rapids, Michigan; in fact, started the first DBT program in the world for case-management.
Steve does DBTtherapy by Skype, phone or in person. Please go to: http://www.heartfeltmin.org/#!financial-fact-sheet/cy4s
















Steve Bloem and his wife Robyn wrote Broken Minds Hope for Healing When You Feel Like You're Losing It. It is their testimony of the grace of God shown to them during episodes of dark depression.  It is a personal, technincal and biblical treatment of mental illness. It was nominated for the best nonfiction of the year 2005 by Foreword Magazine.