Marsha Linehan: from patient to psychologist to overcome BPD

Marsha Linehan is an American psychologist, professor, author, and creator of dialectical behavior therapy.. It is a theoretical and treatment model developed for patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) in which behavioral therapy techniques are combined with principles of acceptance of reality derived from Zen and dialectical philosophy.

However, this woman still carries the stigma of her past with BPD, the burn marks and cuts on her arms are proof of this. In the past, Marsha was a patient with a very serious prognosis who was hospitalized for 26 months. “I was in hell,” he said.

The chronic feeling of emptiness, emotional instability and the need to please others become a real nightmare for those who suffer from BPD. In fact, Your identity is continually depending on the evaluations of others. The fear of abandonment that they can experience is such that sometimes, unintentionally, they end up causing it.

The painful life of Masha Linehan suffering from BPD

Marsha Linehan wandered desperately from specialist to specialist for 20 years, His prognosis being little chance of survival. Suicide attempts followed one another and with them new hospitalizations.

However, despite everything, this impressive woman wanted to recover. Without ceasing her struggle, she found a job as an employee at an insurance company. And at the same time, she began taking night classes at the University.

Very religious, Marsha frequently went to a chapel. From this time, she remembers the following: “One night, she was kneeling there, looking at the cross and the whole place turned golden. Suddenly I felt something coming towards me. I ran to my room and for the first time I spoke to myself in the first person: I LOVE ME. From that day on I felt transformed.”

For a year, he worked through his feelings of devastation. In this time, she came to understand and accept her emotional storms: she learned to deal with her feelings from a better knowledge of herself. Additionally, she took years of study in psychology during which She earned a doctorate from Loyola University Chicago in 1971 that helped her understand her metamorphosis.

What had transformed Marsha Linehan’s experience was that she had accepted herself for who she was.. This acceptance became increasingly important as she began working with patients, first in a clinic with suicidal people and then in research.

Your treatment proposal

She wanted to convince that Therapy could allow patients to acquire new behaviors and learn to react differently. However, profoundly suicidal people have usually “failed” in their attempts to overcome the disorder too many times.

Marsha’s approach imposes a new reasoning: the behavior of these people is largely logical in the face of suffering.

Marsha Linehan emphasizes two ideas:

Acceptance of life as it is, not how it’s supposed to be.The need to change, despite accepting reality.

Later, this researcher scientifically tested his theory in the real world. “I decided to help suicidal people because they are the most miserable people in the world. They think they’re bad and I realized they weren’t. I understood it because I went through the hell of suffering, without any hope of getting out of it.”

Marsha chose to treat people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, characterized by dangerous behaviors, including self-destruction or self-harm. He does this in the form of a reciprocal “contract” with these people: they had to commit to following the therapy until the end to have the opportunity to live.

Consolidation of Marsha Linehan as an academic figure

Dr. Marsha Linehan moved up the academic ladder from the Catholic University of America to the University of Washington in 1977. In the 1980s and 1990s, studies were conducted that showed the progress of approximately 100 high-risk suicidal patients with BPD. who had undergone dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) in weekly sessions.

Compared to other therapies, patients made fewer suicide attempts and returned to hospitals less frequently. The fundamental objective of dialectical behavioral therapy is that the patient learns to regulate emotionality extreme and its impulses.

Thus, mood-dependent maladaptive behaviors are reduced. Additionally, you are taught to learn to trust and validate your own experiences, emotions, thoughts and behaviors.

Unlike other cognitive-behavioral programs, Dialectical behavioral therapy is an intervention based on therapeutic principles and not an intervention based on a treatment manual. This program is based on a hierarchy of therapeutic goals that are addressed based on their importance. The hierarchy established in individual therapy is as follows:

Solve suicidal and parasuicidal behaviors.Change behaviors that interfere with the course of therapy.Eliminate behaviors that affect quality of life.Develop behavioral skills that help achieve well-being.

This structure allows a flexible approach depending on the needs of each patient. Furthermore, it is important because it refers to the change in the focus of the intervention.

Traditional cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on achieving resolution of emotional problems through behavioral and cognitive change. On the contrary, Linehan puts the emphasis on acceptance and validation, to get the change from there. Thanks to his work, Thousands of lives have been saved throughout the world.

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