Three questions about what is happening in your body and what the urge is asking for, and you get one skill rather than a menu of twenty. Nothing is stored, and nothing here replaces a safety plan.
Reviewed by Albert Wong, PhD·Clinical psychologist·Last reviewed September 2026·About this site
How to use this
The point of a tool like this isn’t that it knows your life. It’s that at high arousal, choosing between twenty skills is itself an impossible task, and a single suggestion is actionable where a menu isn’t. Use it to get one thing to do in the next ten minutes.
If you find yourself coming back to it repeatedly at the peak, that’s worth mentioning in session — not as a failure, but because the pattern it reveals is exactly the kind of thing a chain analysis is good at, and the useful work usually turns out to be several hours earlier in the chain than the moment you reached for a skill.
If you’re in danger
Nothing here is a crisis service. In the US, call or text 988, or go to an emergency department, or call 911. If you’re in a DBT programme, phone coaching exists for the moment before that, and calling early is actively encouraged rather than a last resort.
Keep reading
46 guides on DBT plus printable worksheets, free and without an account. There is a directory of therapists here too — it is new, and growing.
General information, not clinical advice; the people described are composites, not real clients. DBT skills are not a substitute for treatment or for a safety plan. Listings on this site are maintained by independent practices. If you are in immediate danger, call 911; the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text any time.