Marsha M. Linehan (born May 5, 1943) is an American psychologist, professor, and author. She created dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), an evidence-based psychotherapy that combines cognitive restructuring with acceptance, mindfulness, and shaping. Linehan's development of DBT was a major advancement in the field of psychology, effective at treating clients who were not improving with the existing methods at the time. This unlocked new means of treating people with chronic suicidality and borderline personality disorder (BPD) and has since been shown to be helpful to people with other disorders. Linehan is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle and Director of the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics. Her primary research was in the development of DBT and its use for treating borderline personality disorder, the application of behavioral models to suicidal behaviors, and drug abuse. Linehan also authored books including two treatment manuals and a memoir. Linehan also founded Behavioral Tech LLC, which trains mental health professionals in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and co-founded the DBT-Linehan Board of Certification (DBT-LBC) to identify providers offering evidence-based DBT. She is also trained in spiritual direction and serves as an associate Zen teacher in both the Sanbo-Kyodan School in Germany and the Diamond Sangha in the U.S. Allen Frances, in the foreword for Linehan's memoir Building a Life Worth Living, said Linehan is one of the two most influential "clinical innovators" in mental health, the other being Aaron Beck.
Early life and education Marsha Linehan was born on May 5, 1943, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the third of six children. Her father worked as a vice president at Sunoco Oil, and her Cajun mother was deeply involved in church and volunteer activities. Both parents were described as image-conscious, creating an environment in which Linehan often felt invalidated. Although she believed her family loved her, she felt that love was not well expressed. She recalled feeling out of place and said her mother made efforts to change her to help her better fit in.
Linehan attended Catholic school and considered herself popular among her peers. She joined a high school sorority that had made her feel validated, but later left believing she needed to make a sacrifice. Her mental health declined, leading to worsening depression and persistent headaches. Just weeks before her high school graduation, she was hospitalized at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut, where she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and admitted as an inpatient. Linehan began cutting herself, was subjected to electroconvulsive therapy, long periods of seclusion, extreme cold pack therapy, as well as Thorazine and Librium as treatment. Linehan described the experience as extremely painful, stating:“I know what hell feels like, but even now I can’t find words to describe it. Every word that comes to mind is so utterly inadequate to describe how terrible hell is. Even saying it is terrible communicates nothing about the experience. When I reflect on my life, I often realize that there is no amount of happiness in the universe that could ever balance the searing, excruciating emotional pain I experienced those many years ago.”During her more than two-year stay at the institute, she dealt with suicidal behavior and although not diagnosed, she has said that she feels that she actually had borderline personality disorder. The symptoms she experienced then are similar to today's diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder. In a 2011 interview with The New York Times, Linehan said that she "does not remember" taking any psychiatric medication after leaving the Institute of Living when she was 18 years old. At 20, Linehan left the Institute returning to Tulsa after having a pattern of suicidal behavior broken by her doctor. Linehan expressed a commitment to helping others stating:“The day when I was sitting in the piano room by myself, a lonely soul in the midst of other lonely souls in the unit, I am not sure what made me do what I did next. Whatever it was, there and then I made a vow to God that I would get myself out of hell and that, once I did, I would go back into hell and get others out. That vow has guided and controlled most of my life since then.”When she returned home to Tulsa at age 20, she reported significant memory loss from her time at the institute. Life back at her parents' home was strained, and her self-harming behaviors continued. She eventually moved into a YWCA in downtown Tulsa, where she later attempted suicide twice. Determined to move forward, she enrolled in night school at the University of Tulsa, focusing her studies on suicide, and worked as a mail girl and receptionist with aspirations of becoming a psychiatrist. After discovering that a man she had been dating was married, she relocated to Chicago to live near her supportive brother, Earl. In Chicago, Linehan learned that a friend of her father had created a college trust fund for her. Linehan began studies at the Jesuit university Loyola University Chicago. She found community within Catholic groups, studied in hotel lobbies, rode the L, and often spoke with the university chaplain. She joined the lay religious taking a vow of poverty and volunteered with Little Brothers of the Poor.
Linehan graduated cum laude from Loyola University Chicago in 1968 with a B.Sc. in psychology. When Linehan struggled financially, she was assisted by Loyola faculty and found work within the university to complete her education. Realizing that psychiatry lacked effective treatments for the kind of patients she wanted to help, she pursued graduate studies in psychology with the assistance of Loyola faculty. While at Loyola, she supported liberation theology, opposed the Vietnam War, and engaged with socially active Jesuits. She earned an M.A. in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1971, both in psychology with clinical training, at Loyola University Chicago. During her time at Loyola, Linehan also served as a lecturer in the psychology department.
Career
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