Diary Card
A weekly self-monitoring card for tracking emotions, urges, target behaviours and skills use each day. The standard DBT tool for bringing the week into the session and guiding what to work on first.
About this resource
The diary card is the backbone of individual DBT. Clients rate, once a day, the intensity of key emotions, the strength of urges toward target behaviours, whether those behaviours occurred, and which skills they practised. The card is reviewed at the start of every session and sets the agenda according to the DBT target hierarchy: life-threatening behaviour first, then therapy-interfering behaviour, then behaviours that damage quality of life.
The card serves several functions. It makes patterns visible over weeks that are invisible day to day. It builds the habit of noticing and naming emotions before they peak. It keeps skills use on the client's mind and rewards it with a record. And it prevents sessions from being dominated by whatever happened most recently at the expense of what matters most.
This version is a general-purpose card that can be adapted to any client. The behaviours and skills columns are left for the client and clinician to fill in with the client's own targets, which increases ownership and relevance. It is suitable for adults and adolescents. The professional version includes guidance on setting up the card in the first sessions, responding to non-completion as therapy-interfering behaviour, and using the card to open each session.
How to use it
- Set up the card together in the first or second session. Agree on two to four target behaviours (the things the client wants to reduce) and the emotions most relevant to the client. Write these into the card before giving it out.
- Explain the rating scale (0 = not at all, 5 = the most intense it gets) and ask the client to fill the card in at the same time each day, ideally in the evening. Ratings are for the peak of the day, not the average.
- Begin each session by reviewing the card. Look first for any life-threatening urges or behaviours, then therapy-interfering ones, then quality-of-life targets. This determines what the session works on.
- Use the card as the starting point for a chain analysis when a target behaviour has occurred.
- If the card is not completed, treat that as material rather than a failure: what got in the way, and what would make it easier? A partly completed card is still useful.
- Every few weeks, look back across cards for patterns: days of the week, times after particular events, emotions that reliably precede urges.
References
- Linehan, M. M. (1993). Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. Guilford Press.
- Linehan, M. M. (2015). DBT Skills Training Manual (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
- Koerner, K. (2012). Doing Dialectical Behavior Therapy: A Practical Guide. Guilford Press.
