Supporting Daily DBT Practice with DBT Pal
DBT skills work best when they become part of daily life, not just topics discussed in weekly therapy sessions. The challenge is that life between sessions is full of the exact situations where skills could help—but those are also the moments when skills feel hardest to access.
DBT Pal is designed to support that daily practice. It keeps diary card tracking and DBT skills accessible when you're navigating real situations, not just reviewing them afterward.
The Four DBT Skill Modules
DBT organizes skills into four areas:
Mindfulness: The foundation of all other skills. Mindfulness means observing the present moment—your thoughts, feelings, and sensations—without judgment and without immediately reacting.
Distress Tolerance: Skills for getting through crisis moments without making things worse. These include techniques like TIPP, radical acceptance, and self-soothing.
Emotion Regulation: Understanding your emotions, reducing vulnerability to emotional reactivity, and changing emotions when needed. This includes skills like opposite action and checking the facts.
Interpersonal Effectiveness: Communicating your needs while maintaining relationships and self-respect. DEAR MAN is one of the core techniques here.
Why Daily Practice Matters
Skills learned in therapy don't automatically transfer to daily life. There's a gap between understanding a skill intellectually and being able to use it when emotions are high.
Consistent practice builds that bridge. The more often you notice your emotions, use skills, and track the results, the more natural these responses become. Over time, reaching for a skill becomes less effortful.
But consistent practice requires access—having skills and tracking available when you need them, not just when you have a paper diary card handy.
How DBT Pal Supports Daily Practice
DBT Pal keeps the core elements of DBT practice accessible on your iPhone:
Diary card tracking: Log emotions, urges, and skills used throughout the day. You can do this in the moment or add entries later. The goal is making tracking sustainable, not perfect.
Skills library: Access the four DBT modules with specific skills organized by category. When you're trying to decide what skill might help, having them in one place matters.
Reminders: Optional prompts to practice skills or check in with yourself. These support consistency without adding pressure.
Export: Share your tracking data with your therapist when that's useful, grounding sessions in actual data rather than memory.
What This Looks Like Day to Day
- Logging an emotion and its intensity after a difficult interaction
- Checking the distress tolerance skills when an urge shows up
- Recording which skill you used and whether it helped
- Reviewing your week's entries before a therapy session
Skills You Can Practice Today
Here are specific techniques you can start using:
Mindful Breathing
Find a comfortable position. Breathe in through your nose, allowing your abdomen to expand. Hold briefly, then exhale slowly through your mouth. Focus on the physical sensation of breathing. When your mind wanders, gently return attention to your breath. Continue for 5-10 minutes.
TIPP for Distress
When emotions feel overwhelming:
- Temperature: Cold water on your face or holding ice
- Intense exercise: Brief physical activity like jumping jacks
- Paced breathing: Slow, deep breaths
- Paired muscle relaxation: Tense then release muscle groups
For more distress tolerance techniques, see DBT Distress Tolerance Exercises.
DEAR MAN for Requests
When you need to communicate a need:
- Describe the situation factually
- Express your feelings about it
- Assert what you need
- Reinforce why this matters
- Stay Mindful of your goal
- Appear confident
- Negotiate if needed
For more examples, see DEAR MAN in Practice.
When This Helps Most
DBT Pal tends to be most useful when you're actively in DBT, working with a therapist, and looking for ways to practice skills between sessions. The app supports that work—it doesn't replace it.
If you're not currently in therapy, skills practice can still be helpful, but the full benefit of DBT comes from working with a trained therapist who can help you apply skills to your specific situation.
Getting Started
If you want support for daily DBT practice, DBT Pal is available on the App Store.
For more on DBT skills and practice: