Crisis Survival Skills
This skill uses cold water, exercise, breathing, and muscle relaxation to quickly lower emotional intensity.
What is the TIPP skill?
You’re stuck in a stressful situation you can’t leave, and your goal is to avoid making things worse in the short term.
What are Crisis Survival Skills?
Accepting reality fully, even when it’s painful, is called this.
What is Radical Acceptance?
These skills are most useful when emotions are too intense to problem-solve effectively.
What is high emotional distress?
This treatment model was originally developed to help individuals with chronic emotion dysregulation and high-risk behaviors.
What is Dialectical Behavior Therapy?
This strategy involves temporarily setting aside distressing thoughts by mentally “putting them on a shelf.”
What is Pushing Away?
You feel overwhelmed but not in crisis and want to comfort yourself using your senses.
What is Self-Soothe with the Five Senses?
This concept refers to the extra pain we create by resisting reality.
What is Suffering?
The purpose of these skills is not to fix the issue, but to do this.
What is get through the moment without making it worse?
The approach behind this therapy emphasizes balancing two seeming opposites rather than choosing one.
What is Dialectics?
This distraction-based skill includes activities, contributing, comparisons, and sensations.
What is ACCEPTS?
Your emotions spike to a 9/10 and your heart is racing—this skill is most effective to quickly calm your body.
What are TIP skills?
Turning your mind again and again toward acceptance is known as this.
What is Turning the Mind?
Choosing these skills instead of reacting impulsively helps prevent this type of behavior.
What are self-destructive or impulsive behaviors?
One of the four major skill areas focuses on building and maintaining healthy relationships.
What is Interpersonal Effectiveness?
This skill helps you get through painful moments using imagery, prayer, relaxation, and encouragement.
What is IMPROVE the Moment?
You keep replaying a stressful situation and need a temporary mental break to focus on a task.
Pushing Away?
Blank stance replaces willfulness and allows you to do what works.
What is Willingness?
These skills are especially important during crises to help you avoid acting on this.
What are harmful urges?
Another core skill area focuses on understanding and changing emotional responses.
What is Emotion Regulation?
This skill asks you to weigh short- and long-term benefits before acting on urges.
What are Pros and Cons?
You’re about to say something you’ll regret in an argument—this skill helps you pause before reacting.
What is STOP skill?
Insisting that reality should be different, refusing help, or saying “this isn’t fair” while resisting what is happening.
What is Willfulness?
You’re facing a situation that cannot be immediately changed, but strong emotions are pushing you to act impulsively; these strategies help you endure the moment safely until clarity returns.
What is IMPROVE the Moment?
This core DBT skill involves paying attention, on purpose and without judgment, to the present moment.
What is Mindfulness?