The Neurodivergent Friendly Workbook of DBT Skills

By Sonny Jane Wise. Self published, 2022.

This is such a useful resource for therapists and individuals alike. I know I'm not alone in the therapy world when I say I appreciate some of the really useful skills that DBT offers, but find some of the framing a little hard to work with. Wise takes the useful aspects of DBT, exploring the mindfulness, distress tolerance and emotional regulation skills that are so useful, and they then reframe these basics to focus specifically on neurodivergent brains. Wise also removes the element of "interpersonal effectiveness" that DBT classically includes, and instead they expand on how neurodivergent people can more effectively address their sensory-specific needs and use that insight to reduce meltdowns and overwhelm.

I like this reframe quite a bit, especially the removal of the "interpersonal effectiveness", as that element can come across a bit prescriptive in terms of a "right" way to socialize (with a heavy implication that things like autistic ways of being social are therefore "wrong"). I also appreciate the way these skills are explicitly focused on how to be accessible for neurodivergent minds. If you are a neurodivergent person who has struggled with mindfulness as it is classically taught, there is a great section in here about how to make mindfulness work for you.

I think any neurodivergent person, and any therapist who works with neurodivergent people (that's all of us, by the way!) would benefit from sitting down with this workbook. You can find out more about Sonny Jane Wise, who is a lived experience educator, and their work here.