As a school counselor looking for more strategies to support my students who struggle with emotion dysregulation, I found this book to be both accessible and challenging. The opening sections helped me understand the foundations of DBT in a way I had never been able to in the past and I appreciated the inclusion of sample client-therapist conversations and step-by-step guidance on how to introduce concepts and skills to clients.

That being said, I struggled with some of the author’s descriptions, particularly as we got further in the book and I had to retain more information. There were several concepts that she didn’t explain thoroughly enough for me to gain even a surface level understanding and it was hard to discern why she didn’t always use sample conversations or concrete examples in places where they would have been helpful.

I also struggled with the lack of even brief consideration of how DBT might be tailored for specific populations, such as adolescents and/or those from marginalized communities, who may have a more nuanced positionality compared to clinicians and the world at large. While Van Dijk does recommend rereading the book multiple times to truly grasp the concepts and also offers some continued learning resources near the end of the book, I believe some of the tips and approaches I’ve discovered through articles and books that more specifically address these populations would have made this book stronger if they had been included (see: "Considerations for the Use of Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Individuals Experiencing Oppression" and DBT Skills for Teens with Anxiety: Practical Strategies to Manage Stress and Strengthen Emotional Resilience ).

All in all, I’m really glad I decided to buy this book as part of my professional development plan this year. When I finished it last week, I felt like it would take me months to be able to synthesize it and implement some of the skills I learned with my students, but I’m finding even as I’m still processing the book, I have been able to speak to some DBT principles and skills already in sessions with my students, which is a testament to how effective this book is despite its limitations.

I loved Maud Martha as a character and as a representation of Black womanhood in the early 20th century, but I found the structure of the novel left me wanting something more. While Brooks’ writing was easy to live in for extended periods of time (partially due to her grounding, evocative descriptions), the fragmented approach to storytelling made it hard for me to stay or want to stay rooted in the plot. I spent many chapters waiting for a clarity, contextualizing, or feeling that never came. Thus, I ended the novel with the sense of having experienced something enjoyable but not-quite-finished.

Despite my critiques, I found Brooks’ writing beautiful in an almost mundane way. She made everyday moments and experiences vivid in a way I want to study and, while her narrative structure didn’t fully work for me in her fiction, I have the sense I’ll appreciate it more in her poetry. I look forward to hopefully trying one of her poetry collections later this year to test that thought.