DBT Distress Tolerance Worksheet
By
HappierTherapy
Author bio
The Happier Therapy editorial team is made up of Masters and PhD counselling psychologists. Each worksheet is created by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The worksheet then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
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What is the theory behind this DBT Distress Tolerance Worksheet?
Dialectical Behavior Therapy teaches individuals useful skills to learn to manage and cope with stressful situations which are an inevitable part of life and cannot be avoided or ignored. Distress Tolerance skills in particular are all about accepting one’s painful reality as is and finding ways to bear the pain till it passes instead of finding ways to avoid it.
How will the worksheet help?
This worksheet can help individuals write down ‘self–soothing’ skills that they can use in times of crisis to manage their stress and pain. Self-soothing is a distress tolerance skill that helps individuals keep their calm in times of crisis instead of reacting negatively and making the situation worse.
How to use the worksheet?
This worksheet can be used in Dialectical Behavior Therapy when teaching individuals about Distress Tolerance Skills. Instruct them to think about all the things that they like to do that are very pleasant and calming for each of their five senses and write them down.