Distress Skills Patient Workbook - eBOOK

The Distress Skills Patient Workbook is a comprehensive, practical workbook designed to help people manage overwhelming emotions, tolerate distress safely, reduce regrettable actions, and build long-term emotional resilience. Grounded in evidence-based approaches including Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), this workbook combines psychoeducation, practical exercises, reflection tools, diary cards, grounding skills, crisis strategies, and emotional regulation techniques into one structured resource.

Unlike many mental health resources that focus only on theory, this workbook emphasises practical implementation — helping people understand why distress happens, how the nervous system responds under stress, and exactly what to do in the moment when emotions escalate.

This workbook helps people:

• Understand the distress cycle and emotional overwhelm
• Recognise early warning signs of escalating distress
• Reduce panic, hyperventilation, and physiological arousal
• Learn grounding, mindfulness, and crisis survival skills
• Prevent regrettable actions and impulsive behaviours
• Develop personalised coping plans for difficult days
• Build emotional awareness and distress tolerance
• Reflect on emotional patterns, triggers, and themes over time

Inside this workbook, you’ll find:

• The Distress Cycle model and worksheets
• SUDS (Subjective Units of Distress) tracking tools
• Dialectical Thinking exercises
• Mindfulness of the Dot practice
• Pause Breathing and Burst Exercise skills
• Ice Pack technique for panic and overwhelm
• STOP skill and grounding exercises
• Graceful Exit and Opposite Action strategies
• Check the Facts worksheets
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation scripts
• Autogenic Training scripts
• Regrettable Action Analysis and Missed Opportunity Analysis
• Diary cards and progress tracking tools
• “Stack Your Skills” and coping planning exercises

This resource is ideal for:

• Anxiety and panic attacks
• Trauma and PTSD recovery
• Emotional dysregulation
• DBT and distress tolerance work
• Burnout and overwhelm
• Relationship conflict and emotional reactivity
• Therapy homework and psychoeducation
• Frontline workers and high-stress professions

The workbook is designed for both individuals and clinicians wanting a structured, practical resource that translates emotional regulation concepts into real-world action. The approachable language, visual explanations, and step-by-step exercises make complex psychological concepts easier to understand and apply in daily life.

Perfect for use:

• In therapy sessions
• Between sessions as homework
• For self-guided emotional skills training
• Alongside DBT or trauma therapy
• As a recovery companion during stressful periods

Whether you struggle with panic, anger, emotional overwhelm, impulsive reactions, shutdown, or chronic stress, this workbook provides practical tools to help you respond more skilfully and confidently during difficult moments.

Developed by Jessica O'Garr and Dr Al Griskaitis for The Psych Collective