My DBT Diary Card--Texas Edition © Sarah C. Turner

My DBT Diary Card— Texas Edition

Instructions

 

© Sarah C. Turner, October 20, 2015

Contact Sarah C. Turner at SarahCTurnerMEd@gmail.com

http://dbtin3months.blogspot.com

 

Five Pages Total: Instructions with Diary Card Examples, Emotion Tracker, Target Behavior Tracker, and Skills Tracker

 

Date Started and Date Finished: Month – Day – Year

 

Included are Four weeks for Emotion and Target Behavior Trackers and One Week for Skills Tracker. It is easier for clients and therapists to see patterns during four consecutive weeks of treatment.  Skill use will increase with time spent learning and practicing the skills taught in the DBT treatment program. 

 

Four columns for Target Behavior Tracker are customized for Client’s Target Behaviors.  This section is designed to be personalized for each client, using the Target Behaviors collaboratively agreed upon by the client and DBT therapist and in sequence of the DBT treatment hierarchy in the Commitment Process.  Traditional DBT Diary Cards include urges to commit suicide, self-harm, and use drugs or alcohol.  My DBT Diary Card—Texas Edition includes these columns and spaces for up to four personalized Target Behaviors.  The urge to act on these Target Behaviors is on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 5 (most intense urge ever), so write the score in the box with the correct day of the week as the row.  Write a star or asterisk beside the score for the intensity of the urge with the Target Behavior.   

 

Emotion Tracker indicates patterns for four consecutive weeks for these Six Emotions: Anger, Fear, Joy, Misery, Sad, and Shame.  Write the score as a single number (no ½) of the intensity of the Emotions on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 5 (most intense emotional experience ever) in the box with the correct day of the week as the row.  The intensity of emotions may vary with different environments and the scales for the emotions may differ for each emotion.  Clients and therapists need to be on the same page about how a 5 in Anger compares to a 5 in Shame or Joy. 

 

Skills Tracker has the updated list of DBT Skills from the second edition of Marsha M. Linehan’s Skills Manual (2015) and additional DBT Skills for Adolescents by Jill Rathus and Alec Miller (2015).  Each treatment module has its own section:  Core Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, and Distress Tolerance.  Place a check mark or highlight the box with the skill column and the row with the correct day.

 

“Did I avoid situations when I used to do my Target Behavior?”  Respond with Yes or No.  Sometimes spending time with people, places, music, food, or situations can trigger some behaviors to happen again.  Behavior Chain Analysis or Solution Analysis can help to identify the patterns and help with responding differently, in a more skillful way. 

 

The spaces for “About My Week” and “Celebration about My Week” are for phrases, events, thoughts, images, or reflections, fitting about the length of a Twitter response.   

“My Reinforcement for using my skills” is a reminder to celebrate using your skills by adding a reward or something fun to increase the likelihood of using and applying the skills.  For example, when you learn the TIPP (Distress Tolerance Module) or PLEASE skills (Emotion Regulation Module), reinforcement for balanced exercise might include purchasing new running clothes or an iTunes gift card to buy music to play during your warm-up.  The key point is to increase the likelihood of thinking and acting in a balanced, skillful way.

 

In the “Used Skills” section, match the descriptions of thoughts and actions about using skills each day.  This section can be confusing and frustrating, so fill out the rest of the card and talk to your Individual Therapist.  Write the number that best reflects the approach to how the skills were and/or were not used each day.

 

The scale ranges from 0 to 7, using whole numbers: 0 (not thought about or used); 1 (thought about, not used, wanted to); 2 (thought about, not used, wanted to); 3 (tried but couldn’t use them); 4 (tried, could do them, but they didn’t help); 5 (tried, could use them, helped); 6 (automatically used them, helped); and 7 (automatically used them, helped). (Marsha M. Linehan, 1993, 2015).

 

My DBT Diary Card Skills Tracker- Texas Edition Initials: SCT	Frequency of Entering Data: 0 1 2 3 4 5 (6) 7 In session: Y/(N)		Date Started: 10/19/15	Date Finished: _____	"Was that hard [to use your skills]?"  Yes. "Now we know you can do hard things."  Marsha Linehan, founder of DBT
Core Mindfulness Module and Skills		Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
States of Mind	Wise Mind	ü	ü
What Skills	Observe	ü
	Describe	ü	ü
	Participate		ü
How Skills	One Mindfully	ü	ü
	Non-Judgmentally
	Effectively		ü

 

Intensity of Urge (0-5)	Checkmarks for skills used.  Write a score (0 to 5) (only whole numbers) about intensity of the urge and a star or * if this Target Behavior (if it’s self-harm with intensity of urge as 4, write 4*). Discuss all scores with stars/asterisks and any change of intensity scores that change by 3 points.   Target Behaviors (0 "Not at all" to 5 "Strongest Urge Ever") (add a star * to say "Yes, I did do that")
Week and Day	Urge to Commit Suicide	Urge to Self-Harm	Urge to Use Drugs or Alcohol	Did I avoid situations when I used to do my target behavior? (Y/N)
1- Monday	4	4*	4	N
1- Tuesday	3	4*	0	N