15 Printable DBT Worksheets and Handouts
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Key Takeaways:
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Are you feeling overwhelmed by emotions? Do you need help managing difficult situations? You're not alone. DBT worksheets can help you navigate challenges and build a more fulfilling life.
With our printable DBT worksheets and handouts, you can learn to unmask your emotions, master mindfulness, regulate your emotions, build healthy relationships, and embrace radical acceptance.
What are DBT Worksheets?
DBT worksheets are written exercises that clearly and concisely explain core DBT skills, such as identifying and challenging unhelpful thought patterns. They also offer practical activities to help you learn and practice these skills, such as filling out charts, journaling prompts, and roleplaying scenarios.
As a whole, DBT worksheets are a type of self-help tool that helps individuals learn the basics and identify areas to focus on during therapy sessions.
What are DBT Worksheets Used For?
DBT worksheets are used for various purposes throughout DBT therapy and can be helpful for both therapists and clients.
For clients, DBT worksheets impart essential DBT skills and provide practical exercises to solidify various lessons. They often include prompts for self-reflection, helping clients identify areas for improvement and track their progress over time.
On the other hand, therapists can use DBT worksheets to guide sessions and introduce new skills to clients. They can also use DBT worksheets as “homework,” allowing clients to practice their newfound skills outside therapy settings.
15 Printable DBT Worksheets and Handouts
Incorporating DBT worksheets into your therapy sessions and daily life can help you overcome challenging situations and emotions. Here are 15 of our most helpful worksheets and handouts. Many of our worksheets have corresponding handouts to further describe the DBT skill being presented, so don’t forget to check out our entire collection of DBT worksheets and handouts on our site.
1. What Is DBT?
Answering the question “What is DBT?” can help you set realistic expectations for yourself and your therapy sessions. Our handout comprehensively explains the components and benefits of DBT, setting a better scene for clients to maximize its advantages and identify specific goals.
2. DBT What Makes It Hard To Regulate Emotions
When you understand what makes it hard to regulate emotions, you can begin challenging these factors and improving your mindset. Our handout dives deep into factors like biology and genetics, moodiness, emotional overload, and lack of skills and provides information to increase awareness and understanding.
3. DBT SMART Goals Worksheet
Once you’ve gauged your emotion regulation skills and identified areas of improvement, it’s time to set SMART goals. DBT SMART goals are:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Setting SMART goals can help increase focus and direction, enhance motivation, and improve collaboration between clients and therapists.
4. DBT Check the Facts
Our emotions can cloud our judgment, especially when intense and overwhelming. We can avoid reacting to assumptions and jumping to conclusions by pausing to check the facts.
Checking the facts also promotes better decision-making and reduces conflict among the people involved. Taking the time to verify information demonstrates respect for others and fosters trust in relationships.
Our handout asks clients to reflect on what is true about the situation and what may need clarification.
5. DBT Thinking Errors
Identifying thinking errors and cognitive distortions can improve emotional regulation as individuals gain the power to challenge these thoughts. Individuals can also develop a more compassionate inner voice and replace negative thoughts with more helpful ones.
Our handout enumerates and explains the common thinking errors a person might experience and encourages clients to question their assumptions.
6. DBT Pros and Cons Worksheet
When you encounter a challenging situation, you may wonder whether acknowledging and coping with the stressor is worth it. This DBT worksheet of pros and cons helps you weigh the negative and positive consequences of acting on the crisis urge and encourages you to reflect on what steps to take.
7. DBT Mindfulness Skills
Mindfulness plays a crucial role in DBT. In fact, mindfulness is the foundation upon which DBT skills are built.
Our mindfulness skills handout explains these components and provides practical tips for improving distress tolerance, breaking emotional reactivity, and increasing self-awareness. It breaks these lessons into “how” and “what” skills, providing examples like breathing exercises and relaxing the muscles.
8. DBT Emotion Regulation Skills
Emotion regulation skills enable individuals to develop healthy ways to manage their emotions, particularly intense and overwhelming ones. Our handout breaks down critical aspects of emotion regulation and proposes exercises to help people better understand their feelings, validate them, decrease vulnerabilities, and develop strategies for change.
9. Self-Soothe DBT Worksheets with 6 Senses
Our nervous system becomes aroused during emotional distress, leading to a "fight-or-flight" response. This response can manifest in physical symptoms like increased heart rate, sweating, and muscle tension. Soothing the six senses in DBT helps activate the body's relaxation response, counteracting the adverse effects of distress and promoting emotional regulation.
For instance, a recent study showed that exposure to nature-related imagery reduced stress and anxiety in participants [*]. Similarly, another study found that listening to classical music provided the same stress relief [*].
Our self-soothe DBT worksheets with six senses suggest activities for each sense and encourage individuals to participate in sensory or movement-based healing.
10. Behavior Chain Analysis DBT Worksheet
The behavior chain in DBT, or functional analysis, is a technique for identifying the sequence of events and internal experiences leading to problematic behavior. Our behavior chain analysis DBT worksheet describes how to perform this analysis, visualizing the chain like a series of interconnected links.
For example, these elements might include:
- Vulnerability factors
- Precipitating events
- Body sensations
- Behaviors
- Consequences
Individuals can identify these links and identify potential points of intervention, reducing vulnerability factors, managing triggers, and challenging negative thoughts.
11. DBT Positive Affirmation Cards
An activity as simple as reciting positive affirmations can do wonders for the human psyche. Positive affirmations can boost self-esteem, increase motivation, challenge negative thinking patterns, and support distress tolerance when used alongside other core skills.
Our positive affirmation cards include practical and easy-to-remember sayings you can place in your office, bedroom, or anywhere you can repeat them to yourself.
12. Radical Acceptance Coping Statements Worksheet
Imagine your child does poorly on an exam. Fighting against this reality (e.g., blaming themselves, dwelling on "what ifs") will likely lead to increased distress. However, by radically accepting the situation, they can start to focus on what they can control—finding more productive ways to study or getting a tutor.
Radical acceptance in DBT isn’t just about passively accepting everything—it’s about acknowledging reality with wisdom and compassion, reducing self-blame, improving problem-solving skills, and promoting emotion regulation.
Our radical acceptance coping statements worksheet includes positive ones, encouraging individuals to adopt a more optimistic perspective.
13. DBT Journal Prompts
Journaling is a powerful tool throughout DBT for tracking emotions, expressing difficult ones, challenging negative thoughts, practicing gratitude, reflecting on interactions, and preparing for difficult conversations.
Our DBT journal prompts ask clients to reflect on the following:
- How they feel in the moment
- Changes they’ve observed in their emotional responses to stressors
- DBT skills they want to practice more
- A time they endured a difficult situation
14. DBT Cheat Sheet
DBT involves dozens of moving parts that can be challenging to reference in one moment. Our DBT cheat sheet provides a quick reference for techniques clients can apply to difficult situations, such as the PLEASE technique for emotion regulation, the STOP technique for distress tolerance, and “what” and “how” skills for mindfulness.
15. DBT Walking the Middle Path
Walking the middle path means balancing two seemingly opposite extremes in your thoughts, emotions, or behaviors. It's a core concept emphasizing the importance of avoiding "all-or-nothing" thinking and navigating situations more nuanced and flexibly.
Our handout for walking the middle path encourages clients to find a balance between opposite ideas. For instance, it encourages students to balance work and rest and individuals to care about themselves while caring about others.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use DBT worksheets on my own, without a therapist?
Despite limitations, you can use DBT worksheets independently without a therapist. Therapists provide crucial guidance. They can tailor DBT to your specific needs, explain new concepts, and help you identify and address unhelpful thinking patterns that may arise while using worksheets.
How often should I use DBT worksheets?
DBT worksheets offer a flexible approach. Depending on your goals and learning style, you can use them as frequently as you want. It's recommended to start with a manageable pace, such as one or two worksheets a week, and adjust as needed.
After completing a worksheet, reflecting on what you’ve learned is essential. This step is crucial in reinforcing your understanding and applying the concepts in real life. Take the time to consider how the worksheet has impacted your thoughts and behaviors.
Are DBT worksheets effective for everyone?
Research suggests that DBT worksheets can be practical for people struggling with various mental health conditions [*]. However, the effectiveness of DBT worksheets alone may vary due to individual differences and the severity of the problem.
The Bottom Line
Remember, change takes time and practice. However, regularly using our printable DBT worksheets and handouts can help you build a more resilient and emotionally healthy you!
Explore our entire collection of DBT worksheets and handouts covering mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness.
Source:
- Ewert A, Chang Y. “Levels of Nature and Stress Response.” Behavioral sciences, 2018.
- Wazzan M, Estaitia M, Habrawi S, et al. “The Effect of Music Therapy in Reducing Dental Anxiety and Lowering Physiological Stressors.” PubMed, 2022.
- Peprah K, Argáez C. “Dialectical Behavioral Therapy for Adults with Mental Illness: A Review of Clinical Effectiveness and Guidelines.” Nih.gov, 2017.
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