The Radically Open DBT Workbook for Anxiety: A Path to Peace Through Openness, Flexibility, and Connection
About this ebook
When you live with anxiety, it can feel like your mind is always on high alert. You’re constantly planning for every outcome, scanning for danger, and trying to control the uncontrollable. You might feel stuck in a constant cycle of worry, self-doubt, and emotional exhaustion. And while this instinct to control may once have helped you feel safe, it can also leave you feeling disconnected, rigid, and trapped inside your own thoughts.
The RO DBT Workbook for Anxiety introduces a powerful new path to healing anxiety through radically open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT)—an evidence-based approach developed by Thomas R. Lynch, PhD, and grounded in more than twenty years of research. Filled with self-assessments, guided reflections, and proven-effective practices, this workbook helps you understand how emotional inhibition, perfectionism, and social withdrawal maintain anxiety, and offers tools to loosen their grip.
With this groundbreaking workbook, you’ll discover skills to:
- Recognize how overcontrol shapes your thoughts, feelings, and relationships
- Build flexibility and openness when faced with uncertainty
- Strengthen emotional expression and genuine connection
- Release self-criticism and cultivate self-compassion
Drawing from neuroscience, mindfulness, and years of clinical experience, this compassionate workbook shows that relief from anxiety doesn’t come from mastering every variable—but from becoming more open, curious, and connected. With practice, you can move from rigidity to resilience, from fear to freedom, and from isolation to authentic connection.
About the author
Ellen Astrachan-Fletcher, PhD, FAED, CEDS-C, is an internationally recognized clinician, educator, supervisor, and trainer in radically open dialectical behavior therapy (RO DBT), and owner of EAF reCenter, PLLC. She is coauthor of TheRadically Open DBT Workbook for Eating Disorders, and has more than thirty years of clinical experience specializing in anxiety, eating disorders, and mood disorders.
Julianna Gorder, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist who is internationally recognized for her expertise in RO DBT, and is director of clinical innovation at the Chicago Center for Evidence Based Treatment. Julianna is a certified RO DBT trainer and senior clinician, has provided consultation and training in RO DBT to clinicians both nationally and internationally, and has over a decade of experience treating individuals across the lifespan who are struggling with disorders of overcontrol.
