SUDs and Skills

The SUDS & Skills Worksheet helps people match the right coping skills to the right level of distress. Using the Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS), this practical visual worksheet teaches how emotional regulation strategies change depending on whether distress is mild, building, overwhelming, or settling back down again.

Many people wait until they are already overwhelmed before trying to use coping strategies. This worksheet helps users recognise rising distress earlier so they can intervene sooner with more effective skills — reducing the likelihood of emotional escalation, panic, shutdown, conflict, or regrettable actions.

The worksheet explores:

• Prevention skills to reduce vulnerability to distress
• Early intervention skills for rising overwhelm
• Crisis skills for intense emotional states
• “Emotional hangover” recovery skills after distress peaks
• Evaluation and reflection skills to learn from distress episodes

Includes examples of practical distress tolerance skills such as:

• Grounding
• STOP
• Distraction
• Pause breathing
• Burst exercise
• Ice packs
• Self-soothing
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
• Autogenic Training
• Distress Cycle review and chain analysis

Perfect for:

• Anxiety and panic management
• Trauma and PTSD recovery
• Emotion regulation work
• DBT and distress tolerance skills
• Therapy homework and psychoeducation
• Creating personalised coping plans

Clear, visual, and easy to apply, this worksheet helps people understand that emotional regulation is not just about having skills — it’s about knowing when to use them.

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